The Cat and the Champion
by Whatsifsowhatsit
Summary: Crossover of Fruits Basket with Ouran High School Host Club. In spite of his usual apparent confidence, Souma Kyo is becoming worried about winning against Yuki in time, so he seeks more training. Rated T just in case, but I think it's really K plus.
1. Meeting the Champion

A/N: The story takes place after both the Animes of Fruits Basket and Ouran High School Host Club. I hope you'll like it. I'll try to update asap, but I usually take a while, since I don't write very quickly most of the time.

Neither Fruits Basket nor Ouran High School Host Club belong to me. The characters obviously also don't. This fanfic does though.

**1 - Meeting the champion  
**

_My muscles aching_ and my teeth gritting together, I lay once again painfully outside on the muddy garden ground. When I looked up I saw Yuki looking down at me from the warm, dry inside. He made eye contact for the slightest of seconds, his expression neutral as ever, before looking away, not giving me another moment's worth of consideration. I closed my eyes and clenched my fists in powerless frustration.

I could visualize the fight again, closing my eyes like this. I had tried a wholly new combination of moves this time, but it was as if Yuki had been as expectant of it as ever. Did nothing surprise him?

I knew I really couldn't afford to still be this easily beaten by Yuki – there was only about one year left at school and before the end of it I was going to have to have won, at least once. Although most of the time I was confident that I was going to succeed, it was mainly when I was lying on my face with what felt like a tooth out but probably wasn't when I doubted myself the most. And I began to toy once again with the thought that had been spooking through my mind a number of times before now.

Although I appreciated the time I spent with shishou in his dojo and I learnt great new techniques while I was there, I felt that it wasn't enough. Still, every time I attempted to pick a fight with that damn mouse, I found myself pinned against the wall or slammed against the floor almost before I even lifted a finger at him. I couldn't deny it any longer. At this rate, I wouldn't make it.

Therefore, I decided I should find another source of tutoring as soon as I could.

I heard Shigure inside, talking to Yuki. "Ne, Yuki-kun, you really think it's okay to throw him out like that? He lives here too you know."

I couldn't hear Yuki's soft-spoken reply, but I made it a point to not go back inside after that. As if I wanted to live with them at that moment. I crawled up, ignoring the headache, walked around the house and climbed on top of the roof.

Some time later, Tohru came home. She looked happy to see me. Waving, she called up to me. "Hello Kyo-kun! How was your day?"

She must've known when I sat on the roof, there was a good chance of something being wrong, but she didn't bring it up in the conversation. I was grateful for that. "It was okay," I told her. She smiled and went inside.

After that time in the rain a few weeks ago, I had been looking for any signs in her that might suggest disgust or distrust. Although my feelings told me she was being honest, now that she knew my true form, I still couldn't truly believe she didn't think any worse of me than she did before. Even before that, it had been hard for me to believe the possibility that she liked me, but now it was even weirder.

I looked down the path before the house and the trees besides it and sighed. I tried to analyze what I was thinking. It had something to do with Tohru, but I wasn't too sure what it was. Was I disappointed that she didn't come sit up on the roof with me? Or was it more like I was actually annoyed that she spoke to me at all, disturbing my thoughts? I wasn't too sure. I did know that her arriving at home left me with confusing dissatisfied feelings.

I lay back on the roof, resting my head on my hands and looking up at the sky. Tomorrow, I would try to do something about my lack of sufficient improvement in the martial arts.

_The next day_, I went to school as usual. Instead of sitting in the lunchroom doing nothing much except being talked to from all directions, I spent my free time in the library. Although in some strange way, I felt awkward about it towards shishou, I searched the martial arts section for the most recent books and tried to find out who I might go to for training anyway.

_I'd found someone_ in the library who I thought might be fit to train me. His name was Haninozuka Mitsukuni and if I could believe what all those books said, he was the national karate and judo champion. He was said to live very close to where I lived and visit a school that was also very near, called Ouran Koukou. It got even weirder when I found out that he was only about a year older than I was. I was worried about what kind of person someone who was the national champion in two martial arts at such a young age already had to be, but it was the best chance I had. I just hoped he wouldn't be too busy to teach me.

After school, I immediately wanted to storm out and head for where I believed the school was located. However, Tohru called out after me. "Kyo-kun! Where are you going?"

I yelled over my shoulder, "To Ouran!" and kept running so as to avoid any other questions I might get thrown at me from classmates, leaving a confused Tohru behind.

Ten minutes later, I arrived at the school. I had read about how it was a very prestigious school, but what I saw still startled me. It was a shockingly grandiose terrain, on which many large buildings where placed, from the looks of it including a church even. From where I was standing, there was a very large gate that was wide open. Behind that, there was a three-way leading to the left, the right and straight ahead. Straight ahead, there was a circle-shaped pool, not immediately surrounded by fields of grass. Even further beyond was what appeared to be the general entrance to the main building. To the left and right of the field that contained the pool and the fields of grass, but only beyond the paths to the left and right, the building was extended. In this way, on this part of the terrain, the building shaped a very large, very broad, upside-down U, with the pool splat in the center. All of the buildings were colored brilliantly white, with bluish gray roofs. Around the entrance were very large windows and the rest of the school also had a lot of them, though not as large ones. The church was visible in the distance, even behind the U that was the buildings in front.

Although I was intimidated by the size of the terrain and the look of richness that was all about it and it made me doubt whether it might be better to wait for Haninozuka-san to exit school, I decided that I didn't want to wait any longer. I began to walk forward, passing the giant gates and walking the long walk even before the intersection. I started to run. I crossed the intersection looking neither right nor left and ran around the pool. Nobody was to be seen outside the buildings of the school. It made me fear that this school was very strict and I might not be allowed to even enter. Still, I opened the door without doubting a second time and walked inside.

I found myself in the middle of a long corridor that spread out both to my left and right quite far. The walls were colored in soft green and pink colors. Directly in front of me were broad stairs that had a 180 degree turn about halfway. I set a few steps further inside, and then looked around disoriented. Where could I find Haninozuka Mitsukuni? I looked around to see if there was any clue as to where I should go; a map of the school maybe, or a list of students, or both. There was nothing.

I heard high-pitched laughing to my left. When I looked up, I saw three girls approaching me from the distance. They were dressed in silly looking, yellow dresses with large bustles. I began to walk over to them. When they saw me, they grew quieter and I thought I could hear them whisper to each other a bit.

When I got almost close enough to them to start talking, I got uncomfortable. I always tended to get uncomfortable around rich people, because I felt they look down on you.

"Oy," I said.

The girls stopped in front of me and looked at me, urging me to continue.

"Do you know where I could find… Haninozuka Mitsukuni?"

"Hunny-kun?" one of the girls asked.

"I think so..." I nodded, doubtful.

"You have the best chance of finding him in the Third Music Room at this time of day," the same girl said. She was the girl in the middle.

"Ano," the left girl said. "Could I ask you a question?"

"Shoot," I said nervously.

"Why are you looking for him?"

I thought for a second. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her that I wanted him to train me in judo and karate, but I didn't want to be so rude as to tell her it was none of her business either. "I… I need his help with something," I said, stumbling over my words a little bit.

"Ah…" she said and the girls looked at each other a bit.

"Where is this Third Music Room?"

"Ah – the quickest way would be to go up the stairs over there, then turn left, at the end turn left, going along with the corridor, and then it'll be to your right almost at the end of that hall."

"Up, left, at the end left again, then at my right. Thanks," I said and quickly turned around to rush up the stairs. I think I heard one of the girls yell something at me, but I couldn't make out what it was and didn't feel like going back to ask. They made me feel uncomfortable.

Upstairs, I turned left and started walking. To my right, I could see outside through the many windows. There, I saw the round pool again, with the gate way beyond that. To my left, I could also sometimes see through a window. There, there was a large field that was much larger than the field surrounded by the U-shaped building with the pool, that held many more fields of grass and, beyond that, the church. The large clock showed that it was exactly three o'clock in the afternoon.

At the end of this hallway, I turned left, which indeed was the only way to go here, though there was a corridor coming from the hallway a bit before that also, which went to the right and was the left leg of the U.

Though I hadn't even really stopped panting from running earlier, I started running again when I saw that there was nobody in this corridor. I kept my eyes focused on the signs above the doors in the wall to my right. After going a bit further, there it was, sure enough: the Third Music Room.

I threw the doors open and stormed inside, forgetting even to stop running. What I saw was a large room that didn't really look much like it was a music room at all, except that there was a large, black piano wing in the corner. There was nobody in there.

I put a few more steps to get myself to stand still after running. I heard the doors fall shut behind me. Panting, I put my hands on my knees and waited there, with my back to the doors, to catch my breath. Then, I heard many voices approaching and, seconds later, the door opening. I spun around quickly, just in time to see two guys entering the room. One of them was a tall blonde one with blue eyes and the other was one with black hair and glasses. Three other guys came behind them. One of these was a short, girly looking one with brown hair and brown eyes and the others were two redhead twins with cat-like eyes. At the end of the group came a very tall one with black hair, blue eyes and a neutral expression, who carried a short blonde haired one with large brown eyes, who looked a lot like a less blonde version of Momiji but thankfully wore boys' clothes, on his shoulders.

All of them were wearing the same blue and black outfit that had to be the school's uniform. It consisted of a blue buttoned shirt with a white shirt underneath it, black pants and black shoes. They also all wore a black tie over their white and under their blue shirt.

I thought the both guys with the black hair were probably the ones I was looking for, so one of them had to be Haninozuka Mitsukuni.

Just then, the group noticed me and became silent. All eyes were directed at me and I felt myself become self-conscious again.

I saw the tall black haired one with the blue eyes put the boy who looked like Momiji down on the floor. I now saw that he was holding a plush bunny in his hand. The twins stepped away from the girly looking boy. Then, the tall blonde guy bowed down before me and held out his hand for me to shake. I frowned and took a step back. He introduced himself. "Good afternoon! My name is Suou Tamaki. What could I help you with?"

He wasn't Haninozuka-san then. Reluctantly, I shook his hand. "My name is Souma Kyo… and I'm looking for…" It was embarrassing to say it like that when the person I was looking for had to be in this room also. "…Haninozuka Mitsukuni."

All eyes turned towards the small blonde boy who was sitting on the tall guy with the neutral expression's shoulders. Slowly, my eyes followed, only to reach the large brown eyes staring back at me. "Eh?" the boy said. "Boku?"

I was wondering the same thing, myself. Could that boy possibly be the best judoka and karateka? I looked away, the boy's stare making me uncomfortable. When I didn't say anything more, he took a step forward, then another and then he kept walking. He kept staring directly at me when he continued, up to where the boy who introduced himself as Tamaki was standing. Half of him was behind Tamaki, the other half wasn't. He put his hand on Tamaki's waist, apparently to keep him from leaving. I saw Tamaki look down at the blonde little boy for a second and then back up to me. The would-be Haninozuka Mitsukuni still kept looking at me. "Hi, I'm Hani… why were you looking for me?"

I found myself breathing out slightly louder than usual and I felt a lump in my throat and I wasn't sure why. "I think I must have been looking for… someone else. Another Haninozuka Mitsukuni." I still didn't believe this was the boy I was looking for. I visualized this person defeating me in the martial arts and I couldn't help but find the image rather ridiculous.

"Why were you looking for whichever Hani-chan, then?" the boy asked.

I was once again taken aback by the way the boy spoke (and acted in general) and uncomfortably looked around at the other faces watching the conversation. They either didn't seem to realize it at all, or they were just used to it. Tamaki was looking down at the young boy I was talking to; the guy with the glasses was standing in the background near the wall with a notepad he was scribbling in; the guy this Hani was sitting on before was also looking at him with his apparently everlasting neutral look and the twins seemed to be staring me down. The girlish boy was also looking at me, but when I caught him, his eyes widened for a second before he looked away and walked over to a table to sit down there.

I looked back at Haninozuka, who was still waiting for my answer. I didn't really want to tell him with everybody standing around us listening, except maybe the boy at the table. Still, I felt like I should tell him. "I was hoping... that he might train me."

A silence fell and I felt all eyes being directed at me once again. Even the tall black haired guy with the emotionless face, who hadn't let his eyes wander from the boy I was talking to once before, looked at me briefly. Then, the guy with the glasses started enthusiastically writing things in his notepad again, which disturbed me.

"What with?" the boy then asked.

I waited for a second, so I wouldn't stutter once I spoke and then I said, "Martial arts."

"Ah, then you are at the right place." Tamaki spoke out now. I looked at him, kind of glad I didn't have to speak with Haninozuka anymore. "Hunny-senpai is the national champion of judo and karate. Also, Mori-senpai here," he pointed at the tall guy with the black hair, "is the national kendo champion."

I looked at the stern-faced guy he was referring to as Mori-senpai. I had read about him as well. Morinozuka Takashi, national champion of Kendo. It was impressive, but I wasn't too interested in fighting with swords. I wanted to defeat Yuki with my bare hands and with nothing else.

He called Haninozuka 'senpai'. It reminded me that this overly cute blonde little boy was, in fact, older than I was even. I had been thinking of him as just a kid a little, when in fact, he was much older than he looked. He reminded me of Momiji even more, now. His voice even sounded like Momiji's.

"Did you know he used to be the captain of Ouran's karate club?" Tamaki continued. "He used to teach a lot of students martial arts."

"But Tama-chan…" Haninozuka pulled Tamaki's sleeve to get his attention. Then, he turned to me. "Kyo, I'm sorry, but I stopped being the captain of the karate club. You should talk to my brother, Yasuchika. He took over from me. He will teach you."

"No," I said strongly without thinking, "I want you to teach me."

He kept looking up at my face, into my eyes, his mouth a little bit open.

I saw four-eyes once again write something down in his notepad and I got fed up with it now. "Oy!" I yelled out at him. "Stop writing everything I say down in your stupid notebook! It's rude!" He froze for a second. Then, he let his arms fall softly down besides his body and shifted his face so, that the light that shone in from over the bushes outside was brightly reflected in his glasses. I slowly looked away from him again, still a little bit pissed.

"Kyo-kun," Haninozuka said, attracting my attention again. "Will you come with me for a bit… please?" As I nodded slowly, hardly conscious of his question, he turned to Morinozuka-san. "Takashi… will you wait here please?"

"Un," Morinozuka-san nodded with a deep, low voice.

"And… will you hold Bun-bun for me please?"

"Un," Morinozuka-san repeated and took the bunny doll from Haninozuka's outstretched hands.

'Bun-bun'… he really was just like a little kid.

I glared at the guy with the glasses, who was still standing there in the exact same position. On my other side, to my left, the girlish boy was sitting at the table with his books spread out all over it, writing in an exercise book. In front of me, Bun-bun looked very much out of place, the way it was pendent, held at only one paw by the not quite plush-like looking Morinozuka-san.

Haninozuka walked forward, passing Tamaki. With a serious expression, he approached me. "Come," he said and took my hand, pulling me along. Unconsciously, I held my breath as I meekly followed him, noticing how soft and cool his hand felt in these otherwise warm surroundings. His touch was very light and gentle and, in a sense, casual. He led me to the far corner of the Third Music Room and let go of me there. He stood directly across me and looked up into my eyes again.

"Why do you want to train in martial arts?" he asked me.

Something about how he was willing to take the time to talk to me individually and to think about what I had to say so seriously made me feel strange… somehow. Some weird sensation of gratefulness, I suppose it was. He did this for me, even though he had stopped being the captain of the karate club already, for whatever reason.

"There is a person who I need to defeat before the end of this year," I told him. "Some kind of... bet." I thought it probably sounded stupid like this, but I couldn't tell him the total reason why I wanted to beat Yuki. Why I _had _to beat him.

He nodded slowly and I wasn't too sure what to make of that. After a while, he said, "Why don't you want my brother to teach you? He's very good, you know?"

"He's not the national champion, is he?" I said. Damn, why was I blushing? Was I blushing? I was, wasn't I?

"No," Haninozuka admitted. "He's not." He looked like he was thinking about something. "Well, I don't agree with your reason for wanting to train..." I was waiting for the 'but', I knew it was coming. "...But I guess I can... we could at least try it once."

"Really?"

"But first," he said and wisely held up his index finger. "I have to eat keki!"

"Keki?"

But he was already walking away. In surprise, I watched as he took a piece of cake from seemingly out of nowhere and sat with it at the table, across the girly looking boy that was already sitting there, studying. "Hi, Haru-chan!" he said and 'Haru-chan' looked up and said 'hi' back before going back to his studying. With a broad smile, Haninozuka carefully made some space at the table by moving the books a little, before putting the small plate with the cake on it down and starting to eat it. Morinozuka-san walked over and sat down at the table also, saying "Hai, Bun-bun" and giving the plush bunny back to Haninozuka. Suddenly, I was standing alone again and I already started to feel uncomfortable.

"Do you also want some keki, Kyo-kun?" Tamaki suddenly asked and I looked up, startled to see him suddenly standing next to me.

"Ano... no. That's okay," I said and just saw the guy with the glasses write something down again before I looked away. I thought for a second and went to sit at another table by myself. Tamaki and the twins joined me at the table without asking me if I was okay with that. "Hi," I awkwardly said to the twins.

"Hey," they said in unison. "We are Kaoru and Hikaru, Hitachiin brothers."

"Ah... what's the difference between you two?" I asked. They looked at each other knowingly and I saw Tamaki smile.

"I'm Hikaru," the boy to the right said. "I part my hair from the right; Kaoru parts his from the left."

I looked at them both. It was true that they parted it from different sides. "Ah... but are there no characteral differences between you two?"

"Well," Hikaru said, "We have been told, sometimes, that there are some."

"So, what are they?"

It was the other boy who answered me now. "We'll leave that for you to discover."

Hm, so they didn't really want to tell me, obviously. But, what he said did suggest that they expected me to be back, even though Haninozuka hadn't yet told them that he had accepted my request. I wondered why they thought he would.

"So, Hunny-senpai accepted your request, huh?" Tamaki asked.

"Yes, he did," I said, "But..."

"But..?"

I wasn't sure how to phrase my doubts about Haninozuka. I still had trouble grasping the concept of this childish little boy being the national champion of both judo and karate. What if there was made a mistake somehow? It all felt like I was dreaming and would be disappointed to wake up later and be robbed of the hope that I felt of finally beating Yuki, with the help of this... kid. I nervously looked aside to see him devouring his cake. When I went out to look for the national karate and judo champion, Haninozuka wasn't the kind of person I expected to find. I thought about saying that, but I wasn't too sure if they wouldn't tell him. Also, I felt that if Haninozuka really was that great in the sport, saying this wouldn't be respectful enough towards him. I shrugged.

"Hunny-senpai surprised you, didn't he?" Tamaki said, looking in my eyes for the answer before I replied vocally.

I didn't want to answer a question like that, so I looked down at the table and remained silent. Luckily, he got the hint and stopped looking at me so intently.

"Hiiii! Sorry to have kept you waiting!" Haninozuka suddenly said from right behind me.

"Haninozuka," I gasped, startled.

"You can call me Hunny," he said with a sweet smile.

"Have you already eaten that whole piece of cake?" I asked.

"Three, actually," he said dead serious and big eyed.

I looked over his shoulder behind him to take a look at the table, where he had sat. Piled in a corner were three small plates. Next to it was a larger plate that had a piece of the whole cake still on it. At the table, the feminine looking boy was still sitting. He looked at me, also big eyed.

I wanted to say something back to Haninozuka that would show my disbelief of someone eating that much, that quickly, but he talked first. "I wanted to eat the rest too but I didn't want to keep you waiting."

"Ah..." was all that I could say.

"Kyo-kun?"

"Yes?"

"What could I call you? It's a bit confusing, since your name is like Kyou-chan's – ah, he's Kyou-chan," he pointed at the guy with the glasses, who briefly looked back at me from behind a laptop when I looked at him.

"His name is actually Kyouya," one of the twins told me.

"You... you could call me Souma," I said.

"Ah, Souma-kun!" Hearing him say it, it reminded me of Tohru talking to Yuki. It didn't sound too nice.

I looked at Kyouya again, to see if he was looking at me again, but he wasn't.

"Souma-kun?" Haninozuka tugged at my sleeve to get my attention again. By natural reflex, I pulled my sleeve away from his hand, but I immediately regretted it.

"What?" I asked. I hoped it didn't sound as rude to him as it did to me.

"I'm sorry, but I can't teach you today. I have classes!" he told me.

"Oh," I said, more than a little disappointed.

"Ah – but you can come over tomorrow if you wanna and eat keki with me."

"What about the training?"

"Un! That too."

I wasn't sure whether to appreciate or to get upset with this different way of communication that I was getting from him. More than anything, I was confused. "Okay... that's cool," I told him. I pushed the chair back and got up, suddenly anxious to go. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Are you leaving already?" he asked. It sounded as if he would honestly like it if I stayed longer, but somehow, that only scared me more. He barely knew me. Usually, I was suspicious of people who were so friendly to me, even though they barely knew me.

"Yes," I said and I stepped away from the table. "Thanks for helping me."

"Byebye..." he said softly and I walked away, out of the room, without looking back or saying anything to anyone else.

As I walked back from where I came when I first got here, on my way to outside this way too large school, I thought back at what happened inside that room. I wondered why it felt so much like something that hadn't really happened at all. Most of all, I thought back at Haninozuka. What was with that guy anyway, he was way too cute with his keki and his Bun-bun – how was he any different from Momiji? Then, if they were so much alike, why did I not get totally annoyed with him like I always did with that rabbit? It had to be... because he seemed so much more thoughtful than Momiji. It looked like he was more considerate of other people's feelings. Could it be that?

_At home, I_ avoided everyone but Tohru for the rest of that day. It was only the four of us, so this wasn't too hard. I sat in my room on my bed, by myself when Tohru dropped in to ask about why I had gone to Ouran today.

"I was looking for someone... to give me training."

"Eh? What about Kazuma-san?"

"I'll still go to him for training, too," I told her.

"Ah, I see! Who is it you were looking for in that school?"

I looked away from her. "His name is Haninozuka Mitsukuni. Supposedly, he's very good at karate and judo."

"What is he like?" she asked.

"Well... I'm not sure."

"Ah..." We were both silent for a while. Then she said, softly, "Kyo-kun..."

"Hm?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, I forgot – I need to go cook dinner!" She got up and started to leave, but she waited for me to reply first.

"Huh?" I looked back up at her.

"I'm sorry! I'll see you later right?"

"Right..." I said and with that, she left. I frowned, lying back on my bed, enjoying the softness of the pillows and the blankets underneath me. She still confused me sometimes. What did this mean? Could it mean that she was uncomfortable around me after all? Why all of a sudden?

...Of course not. By now, I should know better than to think she would lie to me like that. I sighed, looking at the ugliness of the black and white bracelet around my arm.

By the time dinner had come and gone, I was so tired by the day of school, the visit to Ouran and my own thoughts that I stayed up in my room and did nothing until I went to sleep early.

_The next day_, as was appointed, I went to Ouran again to see Haninozuka and receive some training. Today was going to be a day focused on martial arts training, since I was also going to see shishou at his dojo this afternoon. Also, since it was Wednesday, I had had a tough day at school, so today was sure to be tiresome.

School had already been tough, but at least all arduous things still to come for today were things that I enjoyed, or at least things that I was doing out of free will. I had surprised myself today by looking forward to going back to Ouran all day. It was hard to tell myself not to be so enthusiastic about it because it would probably only make me feel disappointed afterwards. How good was I supposed to become, anyway? No matter how good my tutor was, there was only so much a person could learn at a time, right? Besides, shishou was already much better than Yuki would ever be, so it was doubtful that Haninozuka was even going to be much of a help to me at all. Even so, I was glad that school was over, so I could go to Ouran High School again.

I was again impressed by the looks of the terrain the school was on, but this time I just kept walking at the same pace constantly, all the way to the Third Music Room. Also, different from yesterday, today I arrived at the door calmly and even knocked. It was Tamaki's voice answering, telling me to come on in.

"Ah, Souma-kun!" Haninozuka said happily. After that, Tamaki, the twins and the only guy of whom I didn't know the name yet, the one with the girlish face, welcomed me.

I saw Morinozuka give me a stern look, one that was neutral, but of which I wasn't really sure if it was the same look he had been giving me yesterday. I just ignored him, and kept my eyes on Haninozuka.

Haninozuka, who had been sitting at a table more to the left from the entrance than the table he and the girlboy had been sitting at the day before with Morinozuka-san, Takashi and Kyouya, jumped up and walked towards me. "Come, sit with us," he said.

Reluctantly, I followed. Again, my thoughts greatly confused me when I realised that I was disappointed that he didn't take my hand to pull me to the table, like he had done yesterday when he wanted me to follow him. I sat at the table with them, at the head of the table. I sat at the side where Haninozuka and Morinozuka-san were also sitting, far away from Kyouya, who I didn't think I liked very much. He looked so unfriendly and cold all the time, a bit perhaps like Yuki was to me most often, but very different at the same time.

"Souma-kun, we've waited for you to eat the keki's!" Haninozuka said and took two large identical pies from out of nowhere again, handing them to Morinozuka-san, who started cutting them into pieces with a knife and handing everyone, me included, a piece, served on small plates that were also given to him by Haninozuka.

I didn't really like to eat cake all that much, but for today, I wasn't too much against eating a piece. I took the silver, overly decorated fork from Morinozuka-san with the plate and started eating. It was a very nice whipped cream cake with a strawberry on top of each piece that Morinozuka-san had cut.

After I ate the piece of cake, I felt that unpleasant feeling again that I always got when I ate something overly sweet like this. A feeling like I can't do anything without feeling very bad in my stomach while doing it. Amazingly, Haninozuka ate three more pieces after his first and didn't even take much longer than I did with my one piece.

The girlish boy joined us and soon, I found myself talking with him as the rest had their own conversations and Haninozuka ate some more of the pies. He introduced himself as Fujioka Haruhi. Then he asked, "Who is it you want to beat so badly that you want Hunny-senpai to train you?"

"How do you know?" I asked in return.

"Gomen... I've heard you talk yesterday," he said.

He talked in a very honest way, so I had no reason to doubt his words. Even so, I was careful with trusting him just yet.

"It's my neffue," I said.

"Your neffue... huh? Hmm..."

"What about it?"

"Well, I was just thinking that there was so many family rivalry around lately. Only the twins don't seem to be having that problem, I think."

"With me and Yuki, it goes ages back," I told him. I suppose I was being more precise than he could imagine.

"Souma-kun!" Haninozuka said to me then. "Are you ready?"

I nodded at him and got up. Haninozuka walked over to Morinozuka-san's side of the table.

"Takashi... I'm going with Souma-kun to the karate room, okay?"

"Un, have fun," Morinozuka-san told him.

Haninozuka happily led me, by himself, to the karate room. Seemingly nothing was left of his initial doubt about teaching me. I wouldn't say he was ambiguous or something, but rather that he had just put his negative thoughts aside and started to focus on the positive sides of him teaching me, whichever they might be for him.

"Will your brother be there as well?" I asked.

"No," Haninozuka said. "Chika-chan doesn't teach right now."

The karate room was a large empty hall in many green colors. The floor consisted of large square-shaped tiles. Against one of the walls the material that was used in lessons lay, recently used but still nicely sorted: rubber mats, rubber gloves, additional karate outfits, those small square mats that you hold in your hand for another to hit, and much much more.

"I'll teach you both judo and karate," Haninozuka beamed. "That's how I do it. That way, you won't get bored as soon."

"Oh," I said, "I won't get bored, believe me."

"Ah really? Well, we'll see." Upon saying that, he took off his uniform, revealing a white, easy outfit with a black belt underneath. He walked off and dragged a rubber mat, that seemed way too large for him, away and put it before me, standing on the other side himself. He looked up at me. "Do you know any judo already, Souma-kun?"

"Well… not really, I think…"

"Try to throw me down here on this mat," he told me and took a step forward to stand on it. He seemed to be enjoying this so far, as enthusiastic as he sounded.

Again uncomfortable, I walked forwards without pause. I felt that he was probably going to avoid being thrown down and throw me instead as a way of showing how to counterattack an attacker. However, when I took him by his wrist with my right hand and pulled him towards me, using the speed of the move while I turned around to throw him over my shoulder by sliding my left arm under his armpit, safely onto the mat, he didn't resist in the least. Startled and just a little bit worried, I let go before he even landed and caught myself looking for his expression to see if he was showing any form of hurt that he might try to hide, but there was nothing. Instead, he simply continued the movement to roll over backwards, ending straight up on his knees and standing up again right away.

"That was good!" he said sincerely. "That was a judo throw, did you know that?"

"No," I said, now averting my eyes, but kind of proud that he, the national champion, complimented me. "It just felt like it would be."

"That was Ippon Seoinage," he told me. "A technique that is pretty new and wasn't recognized before 1982."

"I don't even remember how I did that," I said.

"That's okay," he said and smiled sweetly. "The first thing you need to learn is how to properly fall to avoid damage anyway. Ukemi. You'll be much stronger if you are able to do that well."

That was something shishou had been teaching me about, but I had never truly felt like I mastered it. Even so, I had requested to him that we moved on to more aggressive ways of fighting and he had accepted. He had told me that it was important, but I had been too impatient back then to learn all that before moving onto something that I could actually beat Yuki with. Shishou had mentioned it a few times later on, but I had told him that by now, experience alone had taught me how to survive damage. He would counter this by saying it was better to avoid damage than merely survive it, but up until now I had never thought about it as a weapon before. Somehow, the way Haninozuka presented it to me now made me think again.

"Okay," I said.

He talked to me a bit, ever smiling, ever enthusiastic and interested in my opinion, about the role of the uke and the shite; about why it was important to know ukemi and about how important paying attention to your opponent was. If one was to succesfully avoid damage by ukemi, he said, one had to know what the opponent was going to do and use that knowledge to their advantage.

"For example," he continued, "Suppose you know what I'm going to do. It is a technique called Sukui Nage. Come here, I'll show you." He stood firmly on the mat again and held out his arms towards me. "Put your hands on my shoulders," he told me.

Without knowing why, the anxiousness returned. Though I was interested and I thought that I liked Haninozuka training me, there was a very unpleasant feeling in my stomach the whole time. I never had that problem when training with shishou. It made sense, of course, since I knew shishou since I was a little boy and he was like a father to me, while I barely knew this person at all and was still receiving training from him. Besides, the fact that this boy, who otherwise seemed so cute and innocent, was the national champion in both judo and karate made me unsure of how to act around him.

I stood opposing him, slowly stretched out my arms and then put my hands on his shoulders. At this point, my throat and lips were becoming dry and my hands were getting sweaty, though it really wasn't all that warm in here.

"Now," he said, "this position makes it easy for me to use Sukui Nage. Are you ready?"

I nodded.

"If I get your arms away from here…" He moved his own arms upwards in-between mine and then to the side so my arms were swiped away. "…And then grab you like this…"

He ducked quickly, with my arms hovering above him, surprising me, and put his arms, at face height for him, around my waist, placing his left foot next to me and pressing his side against me. My mouth dropped open a little and I felt myself holding my breath and noticing the warm softness of his touch.

He talked up to me, holding me still like that. "Then I can throw you backwards over my hip like this, landing you on your back. If you use the energy from this fall to keep moving and roll backwards, over your head, you will barely get hurt. Hold on!"

Just as I was starting to quiver slightly in his arms, he tightened his grip. I gasped slightly as he pulled my body against his hip and then lifted me, apparently without effort at all. My feet swung up into the air and weightlessly, I felt myself, soaring for about half a second. Then, there was the characteristic POOF as I felt my body change – become smaller and hairy all over - within another half second. I fell at a speed that seemed to be decreased, out of my own clothes, and landed on the floor on four orange paws, shaking beneath me. About a second later, my clothes fell on top of me and covered all but my head. In the same second, I realised that I was in a large empty room, with nowhere to run to or to hide - except maybe underneath my clothes – with a Haninozuka that was full or surprise, looking around to see where I went before even noticing my clothes on the floor… as a _cat_.


	2. The Cat's natural environment

**2 – The cat's natural environment**

"_Souma… -kun?" Haninozuka said_ softly, looking down at the pile of clothes on top of me.

Quickly, I ducked so that my head was also covered with clothes.

"Eh?" Haninozuka said and slowly hunkered down before me. I could just see him through a small opening between my pants and my shirt. He appeared to be looking through the same opening.

Oh god – what do I do now? There was absolutely nowhere that I could go without being seen right away. All the same, at this rate, I was going to be discovered too. If he took the clothes off of me, I would run for sure, I decided in panic.

I saw a hand the size of my head slowly, carefully, move towards me. It grabbed the shirt gently by the collar and looked like it was going to pull the piece of clothing away. My heart pounding in my throat and I stood ready to sprint off.

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Haninozuka stopped moving. "Yes?" he yelled out.

The door opened. Since I couldn't see who entered, I wasn't sure whether to be happy about the disturbance or upset that there might be two people for me to evade now. Could it be Haninozuka Yasuchika entering maybe? Whoever it was, I had to get out of here fast, before I turned back human.

There was a long pause in which neither a sound nor a movement could be detected. It was broken by a very characteristic "Ehhh!!" Tohru?? A weird chill went through my body.

Haninozuka got up, finally letting go of my shirt. I breathed out slowly.

"Ah.. hah!" Tohru exclaimed. "A-ano… hi! I'm Honda Tohru!" She rushed over to Haninozuka. "Nice to meet you! Hmm, where's Kyo-kun? Ah, he must've left! Don't worry, I'll take his clothes with me then!"

I could finally see her now as she hurriedly bent over to pick up my clothes. Stupid girl! She never was too good at handling stressful situations such as these, but this seemed bad even for her. Why would I have left suddenly without my clothes? Also, I don't think she saw that I was underneath here, myself. If she wasn't careful, she would pick up the clothes and leave me here, exposed. I quickly peeked out from underneath my pants and waved my paw at her. "Well then, I'll be -" She stopped moving suddenly.

"Kyo-kun!" she let out.

No! Be quiet! I quickly looked at Haninozuka, who was looking at Tohru. He wasn't moving and was looking quite lost with the situation. I hid underneath the clothes again.

"Eh, I mean, ehehe, it's not like Kyo-kun to just walk off without saying something!"

"Ah… ehm…" Haninozuka pointed at the pile of clothes.

"Well then, it was nice to talk to you and, ehm, I'll see you later!" She picked up the pile of clothes, making sure to take me with her too.

"Ja…" Haninozuka said as Tohru rushed out, pushing the doors open with her knee. I was loosely hanging over her arm, feeling so unbalanced that I thought I was gonna fall, thinking of how although she acted very poorly just now, she did save me.

"Go that way…" I told her, pointing in the direction I had come from with Haninozuka. On the way, I had seen a toilet for boys, and I would be safe in one of the stalls there.

"Ehm," I said to her as we were standing there. "Could you help me? I can't go in by myself now."

"Eh? But it's a men's room!"

"I know… just… be quick about it okay?"

"Ah… hai!"

She handled the doorknob with her elbow and carefully peeked inside. There was no one to be seen. She stepped inside slowly, as if there was less chance of her being seen if she moved carefully.

"Hurry up! You'll be seen!"

"Hai!" she opened a stall quickly, put me and my clothes gently on the ground and wanted to say something to me before closing the door and leaving, when another stall opened and a person I couldn't see came out. There was a long, awkward silence and I saw Tohru's face look to the side, totally shocked.

"It's a boys' room," I heard Morinozuka-san's low voice say. A painful silence arose.

Then, Tohru said, "Ha-hai! I see it is, now, ehehe! Well then, bye!" and rushed out. I sat on the floor of the stall with the open door, hoping Morinozuka-san wouldn't look inside to see an orange cat sitting on a pile of clothes that he would probably recognize.

But he did look in and see me, and he stared at me for what seemed to be an eternity, never changing his emotionless expression. Caught, I stared back up at him, unable to move. Then, he turned away to wash his hands and then leave. Thank god he didn't stay to see me changing back to human a few seconds after he left. Quickly, once again in control of this much more useful body, I shut the door before me and got dressed, using the toilet while I was here.

After washing my hands as well and taking a moment longer to catch my breath, sighing at the situation, I went out to greet Tohru, who was waiting there.

"Kyo-kun!" she said, looking at me.

There was a silence between us both and I know she probably wanted me to explain what happened, but I wanted to think about it more myself, first. I wasn't even too sure what happened back in there with Haninozuka and, especially, why it had happened, myself.

"Let's go home," I said to her, avoiding eye-contact. I turned around and started to walk away already.

_On the way home_, I had been dreading to face Yuki and Shigure in my current (upset) state of mind. I kept asking myself questions along the lines of 'why the hell did I have to turn??' Something like this hadn't ever happened to me before, except when I first met Tohru, and that was very different.

We entered the house and Shigure and Yuki both looked up at us immediately. They were sitting at the table again, drinking tea. "Ah, Kyonkichi-kun!" Shigure said, immediately annoying. You're back huh? How was training?"

I would've gotten upset with him for calling me that, but instead I got distracted and looked at Tohru. "You told him?"

Before she could respond, Yuki said, sarcastically, "Have you gotten much stronger this time?"

Angry as that comment made me, I didn't feel like I had the spirit at that point to go against him. I looked away and said, "I'm up on the roof. Call me for dinner, okay?" and walked outside to climb up on the roof.

There, I pondered the situation. I had been seen by Morinozuka-san, and probably by Haninozuka too. If Yuki or Shigure would find out, they would surely have to get their memories deleted. I didn't want to tell them they saw me, but on the other hand, if Akito found out I had been hiding something like this, the consequences would be terrible. But if they had to get their memories deleted, then what about the rest of the guys I met in the Third Music Room? Tamaki, the twins, that girlboy? Would they have to get their memories deleted too? I wonder if Akito would want to risk not doing so, even if Morinozuka-san and Haninozuka would both say they didn't tell anybody else.

I decided not to tell anybody and talk to Tohru about that. I still wasn't sure whether to talk to Haninozuka about it, or pretend it never happened, or just never see him again. None of these options seemed like they were very good ideas, but at the moment, I couldn't think of anything else.

There was still the other question. Why had I turned into a cat? I hadn't been _that_ nervous, had I? Well, I guess I had, but I was still confused about it. Usually, stress didn't make me turn as quickly as that, and it had come completely unexpected to me. Still, it seemed like the best option, since though Haninozuka had sort of hugged me, in a way, he was definitely not a girl. Although, his cuteness, voice and even his appearance a little did resemble a girl sometimes. Maybe on some unconscious level, because of that, when he hugged me, I was afraid I would turn. Then, that worry and the stress about being trained by the national champion together had to have been the cause of my turning into a cat.

Not entirely satisfied with my own explanation, but still glad that I had thought of something at least, I lay back on the roof, watching white clouds drift by in a blue sky.

_After dinner, I left_ home again to visit shishou. I was happy to go see him today, because training with him would surely put my mind off of things for a bit. Also, shishou always made me feel good and besides Tohru, he was the one person I really trusted. Before going, though, I had made sure to ask Tohru if she didn't want to tell Yuki or Shigure about what had happened today before we had talked about it more. She agreed to this and waved me off when I left. She did offer to walk with me also, so we could talk on the way, but I told her I would rather walk alone. It wasn't that I wanted to think by myself so much, or that I didn't want to talk about it yet, but maybe that I wanted to be alone for a while. Or maybe not even that, but… there was a reason why I didn't want her to come.

"_Another source of training_, huh?" shishou asked after I told him.

We were outside of his dojo. The sun wasn't really set yet, but it was already becoming darker outside. The next few hours would be my favorite time of day to be outside. I was actively enjoying the sensation of the soft evening breeze that blew so gently in my face and the temperature that was just high enough to be able to just wear a shirt comfortably.

"Who?"

"His name is Haninozuka Mitsukuni. He's a student at Ouran High School."

"Haninozuka? The national champion, Haninozuka?"

"Yeah, that's him, you know him?"

"I know _of_ him, I guess."

"He's kinda cool," I said, "He trains me for free while he hardly knows me. Also, he seems… nice…"

"Hmm…" shishou said. "Say, Kyo? We haven't talked about this for some time now, but I have been thinking about it. How is life in the Souma residence these days?"

I grew quiet for a bit. "It's okay, mostly, I guess… as long as that kuso nezumi isn't always as bad as he was the day before yesterday, at least."

"What happened the day before yesterday?"

"He was being very stupid all day, then… he beat me up."

Shishou nodded. "You know," he started. He paused for a while, thinking about something, before continuing. "Can you tell me more about Haninozuka? I have been wondering what he was like. I've heard some stories, but they hardly sound credible."

I grinned. "They're probably true – what have you heard?"

"They say he is participating in some kinda club, the Host Club I think it was. They said," he paused, and grinned as well, "they said he was the loli-shota character of the club."

"I guess that's possible," I laughed. "But, what kind of club is this Host Club?"

"I believe they existed to, as they put it, 'giving hospitality to lovely ladies and profit off of them'. They are a club devoted to entertaining the female students at that school, who can designate them for exclusive time with them."

"Really?" I asked, growing quiet again. I thought of Haninozuka 'entertaining' female students and frowned, unsure of what that would be like. "That's kind of… unexpected." I couldn't imagine it for Morinozuka-san, the girlboy or Kyouya either. I thought of something and looked up at shishou. "How do you know all that?"

"Let's just say… I have my sources."

That really surprised me, because it wasn't like shishou to not tell me something like that. I was also confused about why he would know something like this in the first place. Even if he interested himself in Haninozuka because he was the national champion of judo and karate – which I could understand – that doesn't mean he would know something like Haninozuka's participation in this Host Club.

"So, you still haven't told me more about Haninozuka. Is he friendly?"

"Yes," I said without thinking, looking at my hands, "He's very friendly. He's not the kind of person you meet every day, I suppose. He's energetic and looks and acts very young, though he's older than I am. He eats a lot of cake so fast it's almost scary. And he always carries a plush bunny with him that he calls 'Bun-bun'."

I heard shishou smile without actually seeing it.

"You know," I said, "If I told you something, could you promise not to tell Shigure?"

"What about Yuki?" I couldn't tell him if he was serious or joking.

"Don't tell him either of course!"

"Okay," shishou agreed.

"When Haninozuka was training me today… he was going to show me a throw by throwing me on this mat… and just as I was falling to the ground, I changed into a cat." I looked up at him to watch his reaction. He raised his eyebrows, but didn't speak yet. I looked back at my hands. I had suddenly realized how very weird the little lines on the bending points of my fingers looked and was comparing them on my different fingers. "I think it was probably… because I was so nervous about him being the national champion, and training me, and throwing me… don't you think?"

Shishou didn't answer, and we were both silent for a while. The mood suddenly felt a lot darker than I was used to with shishou.

Then, shishou said, "Well, shall we train then?" I looked up at him, smiling again in relief. "What had we been working on again?"

"Blocking and evading," I told him with a grin. "And I was just getting good at it, remember?"

We started training. He attacked me with his fists and his feet and I did what I could to block them with my hands or lower arms and evade them. It was true, I was beginning to get quite good at it, but still I was nothing against Yuki's rapid attacks. Shishou kept testing me and improving my skills by using more and more complex patterns that he still felt I should be able to read beforehand, and by quickening the pace more and more, slowly but steadily. We trained non-stop for over ninety minutes. With shishou, I was so comfortable with training and I trusted him so much, that things like this came totally naturally to me. I was actually stronger against him than I was against Yuki. That's why I knew that he was a good trainer, and at this point he was definitely more helpful than Haninozuka was. Still, I really wanted to keep training with him, too, because in some weird way, I guess I definitely liked to spend time with him. That's why I was so very worried about how he might respond to what had happened earlier today.

I remembered his look back then, when Tohru had first seen me and exclaimed my name and I had looked at him to see if he had seen me. He hadn't, or at least he wasn't looking at me, but there was a very strange expression on that face. His eyes had been halfway hidden behind his blonde locks of hair, and they weren't as large as usual, nor did they sparkle as brightly. In fact, they had seemed rather dull. Had he seen me? Was he now disappointed because I wasn't who he thought he was and was that why he had looked so sad? If that was true, he probably wouldn't even _want_ to train me anymore. I hadn't even thought about that before, about what he felt of it all. It was at that moment where I remembered how very selfish I could be sometimes.

Shishou hit me in my face and froze immediately. The battle stopped for a second, and it almost seemed like the very passing of time had paused for a bit as well, because there was no movement at all. Shishou left his fighting stance and stood before me as I held my cheek in my right hand. It was glowing very hot against it and I was frustrated to realize that I was holding back tears of pain.

"Hey," shishou said gently. "Keep paying attention."

I nodded.

"Daijoubu? Let me see…" He stepped forward and took my hand, pulling it away from my face. "It's red," he said. "Come on inside, let's get you something cold to put on it."

"No, it's alright," I said. "It's not that bad."

"No really, come on inside, we should take a break anyway. You've been working very hard today. You must be tired."

That was true enough. I nodded softly and followed him inside. He brought me a wet washcloth and told me to hold it against my cheek, which I did.

"You weren't focusing, were you?" he said.

I shook my head in denial.

"You should really teach yourself to always pay complete attention in a fight, even if it's just for training."

"When I fight with Yuki, I'm always paying attention anyway," I told him.

"I know," he sighed, "But still."

The washcloth was really cold, and I would rather stop holding it against my cheek, but I told myself to get over it.

For some reason, I started thinking about Tohru and about how weird it had felt when she had been talking to Haninozuka. In a way, I guess it was almost as if they were from different worlds, and they weren't supposed to interact. Why was she there anyway? I hadn't even thought about asking her that, but it was something that had crossed my mind. Tired, I sighed, giving into the temptation to close my eyes for a few seconds.

"You have a lot on your mind today," shishou told me. "Perhaps we shouldn't train any more for today."

I looked shishou in the eyes. "No, I want to train more." Without thinking, I had started to protest – training with him was what I looked forward to all the time - but I thought that in the end, it might really be better for me to call it a day by now. It was true that I was very tired, and confused at my thoughts that kept going in so many different directions that I couldn't even keep track of them anymore. I breathed out, looking away from him again. "Yeah okay, I guess you're right."

"I think it's wise," he said. Then he looked at the washrag against my cheek. "How does that feel?"

He really was just like a father. Besides Tohru, he was the only one who would ever worry about me, even about something as simple as an injury. Maybe Shigure would worry a bit sometimes, but that was something very different. With this small injury, shishou knew it was nothing to me and that Yuki usually gave me much worse, but still he was happy to be able to help me like this. I appreciated him a lot for that.

It wasn't much later when I left again to go back home. Tohru went outside to meet me and walk the final steps home with me. "Hello Kyo-kun," she greeted. "How was training with Kazuma-san today?"

"Good," I said, smiling inwardly at her friendliness towards me.

"Do you want to have that talk with me now?" she asked.

"I'm sorry – no. I'm very tired and I want to go to bed. Is it okay if we talk later?"

"Of course, that's alright," she said.

"Thanks," I said and we walked a bit more. "Tomorrow at school, maybe." As we almost arrived at the door, I thought of something and I couldn't help but ask. "You didn't tell Yuki or Shigure about what happened, did you?"

"Of course not," she said. "You asked me not to, didn't you?"

"Yeah… I'm sorry."

I took the doorknob to go inside, but Tohru put her hand on mine to stop me from opening it and took it off, holding it in her own hand. My breath got caught in my throat for a second at the soft feeling of her hand, holding mine. "Kyo-kun," she said.

"W… what?"

She paused for a second. Then she said, "You're alright, right? You look so… troubled, today. And tired, too."

I let go of my breath again and told my heart to start beating again, smiling at her. "Yeah… I'll be fine." She let go of my hand and I put it on the doorknob again. "Ano… thanks for asking though," I said before opening the door and going inside, heading straight for the bathroom to take a quick shower before going to bed. It had been a long, sweaty day. Once in bed, I was able to temporarily dispose of my worried thoughts and slept in minutes.

_Thursday_ _came_ way too early and although I was usually energetic in the morning and ready to start a new day, today I didn't at all want to get out of bed yet. Oh, how I hated school.

Stretching myself out as tall as I could get, I kicked off the blanket and pushed away the pillow, in an attempt to make it as uncomfortable in bed as I could. Soon enough, it got cold enough for me not to want to keep lying anymore, so I slowly crawled up, rubbing my eyes. It was funny how I could bring myself to make it so uncomfortable that I had to leave, but I couldn't bring myself to just get out like that. Before going down, I met Yuki and Tohru on the hallway. "Ohayo," they both said to me, the one much more enthusiastic than the other.

"Ohayo," I answered.

"Ohayo!!" someone shouted from downstairs in a voice that I didn't at all want to hear in a morning like this.

"Momiji!" Tohru exclaimed and she ran down the stairs to greet him. I sighed, closing my eyes in preparation for what was to come.

"Good morning, Kyo!" Momiji said to me in his usual obnoxious manner. Looking at him, I noticed that he wasn't really all that much alike Haninozuka at all. In fact, he was very different in behavior.

"Don't spoil my morning any further, Momiji," I warned him. "It's bad enough that you're here in the first place!"

"Eh, Kyo-kun, don't be mean!" he whined.

"And don't speak in that annoying voice!"

"It's my only voice," he objected, but then he started talking to Yuki, Tohru and Shigure, who was just entering the room.

We had breakfast and went to school together, with Yuki, Tohru and Momiji in front and me sulking behind them.

_Lunch hour at Kaibara_. Uo asked me to play dai hin min with her, but as much as I wanted to, I told her I had to talk to Tohru (to which, of course, she said I chickened out and had to have finally accepted her as a superior player).

I took Tohru apart for a bit to talk to her about what happened the day before.

"Tohru," I said, "I was thinking…" I paused for a second.

"Hai?"

I thought about telling her what I thought, that I didn't want to tell Yuki and Shigure even though I did kind of think I was seen, especially by Morinozuka-san. However, I was worried that she might disagree with me and would want to tell Yuki and Shigure anyway. Also, I wouldn't feel good convincing her of something like this, because I was sure she would accept, even if she didn't agree, just to please me in the end, and I would feel bad about that. "I'm pretty sure Haninozuka didn't see me… so please don't talk to Yuki and Shigure about this, okay? They will just see problems when they aren't even there."

She agreed. Stupidly, I still felt bad about it because I hadn't been truthful, but at least this was better than convincing her against her will.

_I decided not to go_ to Haninozuka after school that day and went straight home. I had only just gotten home, however, when I was in for a surprise as the doorbell rang. Shigure went to open the door. I was just on my way upstairs, so I stopped at the top where I couldn't be seen from the door entrance, to hear who it was before deciding if I wanted to stay downstairs to see them.

"Hello," I heard Shigure say.

"Hi! Is Souma-kun around? Kyo Souma?"

It was Haninozuka! What was he doing here? Had he expected me at Ouran and did he come to see where I was staying?

"Ehm, yes he is," Shigure said. "Who should I tell him is here?"

I ran down the stairs. "Haninozuka!"

"Ah! Souma-chan!" I slowed down. Had I moved from '-kun' to '-chan' now? Outside behind Haninozuka, who was still in the door entrance, Morinozuka-san was standing.

He turned to Shigure again. "I'm Haninozuka! I trained Souma-chan yesterday!"

Morinozuka-san stepped forward and extended his hand for Shigure to shake. "I'm Morinozuka Takashi."

"Can we come in?" Haninozuka asked.

"Yes, yes of course," Shigure said. "Please, come on in."

"Thank you! Ojamashimasu!" Haninozuka said, coming in and Morinozuka repeated it after him in his usual monotone, low voice.

Shigure closed the door behind them, following them with his eyes as I showed them the way to the living room, a bit rattled at the sight of two such different persons visiting his house together like that.

I realized that I was extremely glad to see Haninozuka come over right now, finally knowing for sure that he wasn't going to suddenly stop wanting to see me after what had happened. At the same time, I was worried that he might want to talk to me about it, and it might still end bad.

Yuki was already sitting in the living room, I noticed when I followed after Haninozuka and Morinozuka-san, with Shigure closely behind me. He stood up from behind the table to greet the guests, giving them both a polite, "Nice to meet you." Then, Shigure did the same. The both Ouran students repeated the line to them both too.

"Why are you visiting, Haninozuka?" I asked him as he sat himself down at the table next to Morinozuka-san, who was already sitting there too.

He smiled brilliantly and said, "To visit Souma-chan in his natural environment!"

My 'natural environment'? Was he implying something? Damn, this ongoing insecureness was driving me crazy!

The mouse started giggling his girlish giggle.

"What's funny?" Haninozuka asked.

"I'm sorry," Yuki said, "It's nothing. You just reminded me of someone."

"Sorry," Shigure said, "I have to finish something here quickly." He pointed at the computer he was standing in front of, next to the chair to show that he was really only going to take a moment and flying his hands over the keyboard quickly. Obviously, he had been working on one of his stories again and had to get a few ideas out of his head before stopping.

"Souma-chan, the house you live in is so cool! It's really nice!" Haninozuka had turned around while still sitting with his knees under the table, looking around the room, at the painting next to the calendar, the sunlit sliding door and some other things before finally returning his attention to the table in front of him.

"Ah, it's almost like a kotatsu! Tama-chan would have loved this, ne, Takashi?"

"Un," Morinozuka-san replied, looking at Haninozuka.

I distanced myself a bit by standing still behind Haninozuka and Morinozuka-san and looking away from the scene. When I did look once, I saw Haninozuka looking at Yuki intently but innocently.

Tohru came down, which relieved me. "Ah, Haninozuka-san!" she said and he waved at her happily, as if she was a good friend. Tohru walked over to Haninozuka.

"We didn't really meet each other yet… right? Ehehe…" she said.

"Right," he said and held out his hand for her to shake. "I'm Haninozuka Mitsukuni, but you can call me Hunny. And this is Morinozuka Takashi."

"Ah… nice to meet you, Hunny-san, my name is Honda Tohru – you can call me Tohru."

Haninozuka nodded, smiling still.

"Hey," Tohru said, now standing before Morinozuka-san and extending her hand. "I'm Honda Tohru!"

He shook her hand.

"Ah, Tohru -" Haninozuka said, "I brought keki with me, do you want some also?" He turned to Takashi. "Takashi, could you get the keki please?"

"Un." Morinozuka-san took a big box, wrapped up as a present, from underneath the table and placed it before Haninozuka, who opened it up and revealed the giant cake that was inside.

"Ah – hai, please!" Tohru said.

Morinozuka-san cut the cake into even pieces with a knife.

"Would you also like some, Yu-chan?" Haninozuka asked Yuki. When I thought of how long it had taken him to start calling me '-chan' (even though usually I didn't like that at all) and that he was already calling the mouse '-chan', I had to frown. Yuki just nodded politely.

Shigure sat at the table. "Do you also want some, Shi-chan?" So, he was '-chan' already also.

Shigure said, "Yes please."

Haninozuka finally looked around at me, but I pretended not to notice, looking away quickly. "Souma-chan!" he said, "Would you like some keki as well?"

I wasn't entirely sure why, but I could feel my face heat up. "No, thank you," I said simply.

"You don't like cake much, do you Kyo-kun?" Shigure chanted.

"Shut up," I said. I could hear in the tone of his voice that he was out to humiliate me somehow. Besides, I felt like I should be able to decide for myself whether or not I wanted Haninozuka to know that I didn't care for sweets much. Haninozuka looked at me again, wide-eyed.

"Kyo, why are you blushing?" Shigure asked, quasi-surprised.

"Shut up!" I said, louder now. I was really blushing then? I wasn't sure myself why, but Shigure was rarely more annoying than when he met people I knew when I was there as well. Besides, I really didn't want to have to tell him to shut up with Haninozuka in the room.

I saw Yuki looking at me as well and began to feel tempted to just leave the room then and there. I think the only reason I didn't was probably because Tohru was there.

"You'd almost say he was attracted to Hunny," Shigure even dared saying.

"I'm not attracted to chibi characters," I grumbled, holding myself back as much as I could but feeling like I was ready to blast any moment and run out or something. I quickly glanced at Haninozuka, hoping he wasn't hurt by what I had said, but didn't dare to look at him for too long.

"Hmmm? I dunno," Shigure continued. "Isn't Tohru kinda chibi-like too?"

"Eh?" Tohru asked.

"She's not!!" I asserted.

"It's okay if you don't eat keki Souma-chan," Haninozuka told me and he took the fork from Morinozuka-san to start eating. "That way, there's more for us."

After Haninozuka's comment, I started breathing a bit more easily again and even smiled a little. Yuki, Tohru, Shigure and Morinozuka-san all started eating as well and I kept standing there, feeling out of place but not as uncomfortable and annoyed as I had before. Haninozuka had a good effect on me, I realized. He either seemed to understand me, or he just happened to say the right things by chance. In that sense, he was a lot like Tohru, I suppose, but different still.

After Haninozuka, who started his second piece immediately, Yuki was the first to be done eating. He got up, saying, "Ja, I guess I'll go do some homework. It was nice to meet you Hunny-san, Mori-san."

"Un," said Morinozuka-san.

"Bye Yu-chan!" Haninozuka waved. Yu-chan went upstairs, passing me along the way.

With Yuki gone, I was immediately much more comfortable, and soon enough I sat down at the table where he had first sat.

While all were eating their cake, Shigure asked Haninozuka if it was true that Ouran High School was such an elite school as its reputation was. Haninozuka replied, "Well, most of the students' families are quite rich I guess," and looked at Morinozuka-san, then at me. "But not all. For example," he said and was now definitely partly addressing me, "Haru-chan isn't all that rich."

"Fujioka Haruhi?" I thought back at the girlboy that had talked to me about the family rivalry.

"Yes, Haru-chan."

Shigure looked at me inquiringly and I said, "He's just someone I also met at Ouran."

"He's also in the Host Club," Haninozuka added.

I had kind of hoped the Host Club wouldn't come up in the conversation.

"Host Club?" Tohru asked.

"It's a club Tama-chan founded and invited me and Takashi into," Haninozuka said, thankfully not going into too much detail. Like the last time, hearing about the Host Club made my stomach feel all weird.

"What kind of club?" Shigure asked, shattering my hope of not hearing anymore about it. "Is it a sports club?"

"No," Haninozuka said. "Just a club for socializing with the students of the school… or something…" I saw Morinozuka-san look aside at Haninozuka for half a second, and his look was met in the same half second.

Hmm, even when asked directly about it, Haninozuka still didn't explicitly explain just what they did in the Host Club. I still wasn't sure, so although I didn't want to hear about it, I was curious and kind of hoping to learn more about it at the same time.

I remembered shishou's words. 'Giving hospitality to lovely ladies and profit off of them.' '…A club devoted to entertaining the female students at that school, who can designate them for exclusive time with them.' I pictured Haninozuka with one of these girls that I had met when I first gone to Ouran, the girls in the yellow dresses. The image felt wrong somehow, as if these girls weren't fit for him, although I couldn't put my finger on it.

Some time later. Shigure, Tohru and Haninozuka were comfortable enough to be talking without feeling nervous. Morinozuka-san wasn't talking, but rather just sitting there, void of visible emotions as always, though definitely not nervous, that much was clear. He seemed to care too little to be nervous, or something.

Also not talking, I sat there mostly watching the both visitors. I tried really hard to detect any sign in Morinozuka-san's expression that would tell me something about how he felt about seeing that cat on my clothes the other day. Of course, there was nothing. The only time his face moved at all was when he blinked or when he looked down at Haninozuka every once in a while. He always seemed to check on Haninozuka from time to time, as if he was worried about him.

Haninozuka, however, didn't seem to be giving him any cause for worrying. In fact, he was the most active in the conversation, naturally outgoing in friendly situations. He looked like he was having a great time talking with Shigure and Tohru about school, teachers and classes, plans for the future and his friends at Ouran. Haninozuka was almost as enthusiastic as Tohru had been when he heard that Shigure was a writer. After a while, the conversation led to him teaching me.

"You trained him once already, haven't you?" Shigure asked, looking to his left at me for a bit. "How did it go?"

I saw Haninozuka look at me for a second and smile at me, softly, a very special smile. I was immediately confused about the meaning of it. Was it an admission that he knew what had been going on yesterday? Or was it merely a smile intended to let him know that though he hadn't been talking to me much, he hadn't forgotten that he had in fact come to see me? Or was it a smile because he and I both knew that we hadn't gotten to training much yesterday, regardless of whether he knew about me being a cat?

He looked back at Shigure immediately after that. "It was good," he said. "Souma-chan's very talented."

I felt blood rushing to my cheeks again, which was annoying because I knew Shigure would probably be the first to point it out if he would see it and now he would certainly not believe I wasn't attracted to Haninozuka anymore.

'Very talented'? I wouldn't quite say that… I barely got the chance to show him my talent anyway. But at least he didn't say anything painful or awkward.

"He is now, is he?" Shigure said and looked at me with a mischievous smile. I just glared a look at him that basically said 'don't you dare making fun of me again – not now' and thankfully, he left it alone.

"Ah," Shigure now said, thinking of something. "You call him Souma-chan?"

"Yeah, he said I could call him that."

Shigure now faced me. "You told him he could call you 'Souma-chan'?" He sounded surprised.

"I said 'Souma-kun'," I said bluntly.

"Ah – you would rather have me call you 'Souma-kun'?" Haninozuka asked me, worried, and Morinozuka-san looked at him for a second again.

"No… no, it's okay," I said, now feeling my cheeks hotly glowing again.

"Why not just Kyo…-chan?" Shigure asked.

"I know another Kyou-chan," Haninozuka said. "It's a little confusing."

"Ah! You know what we call him sometimes?" Shigure said.

I looked at him furiously. "Shut up!"

Shigure ignored me. "Kyonkichi-kun. That wouldn't be confusing, would it?"

"I said shut up!" Why did he have to bring this up and make me act like that? I knew he was just out to innocently make fun of me as always, which was bad enough, but why did he have to do that in front of these people who came to see me?

"Gee, sorry," he said, "Some people just can't take a joke."

I looked at Haninozuka. When I saw him look with his big eyes worriedly directed at me, I felt like I could cry. In fact, it definitely felt like I was going cry. "I'm going to the bathroom," I said, standing up abruptly. "I'll be… right back." I walked away, out of the room.

"Kyo-kun!" Tohru called after me.

"Ah – Kyo-kun!" Shigure also said. He sounded apologetic, but I didn't want to turn around now, I would look even stupider than I did now, especially if I started to cry right there in front of Haninozuka. He could apologize all he wanted later.

A tear actually managed to escape on my way to the bathroom. In there, I quickly wiped it off with my sleeve and sat on the bathtub to catch my breath. Why was I so easily upset with Haninozuka around? It wasn't as bad as with Yuki, and very different too, but something about his presence made me want to look good. That definitely wasn't possible if Shigure was around, making his stupid jokes about me like he always did. The last thing I wanted was for Haninozuka to start calling me something like 'Kyonkichi-kun'. I was content with the 'Souma-kun' or the 'Souma-chan', why did Shigure have to make such a point of it?

As I got up, not too long after I arrived, to go back, the doorknob was pressed. The door was locked, so it didn't open. There was a short silence before I heard footsteps walk away from the door. It was probably Yuki, because the footsteps didn't go down the stairs. I decided to wait for a bit longer, until I heard a door open and close again. I flushed the toilet for appearances and went back down.

"Kyo-kun," Shigure said as soon as I got back down. "I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd mind that much."

Well, that must've been the first time he said something like that in months. Even so, I appreciated it. "It's okay, that's not why I went to the bathroom anyway," I lied, in an attempt to save myself from looking like a fool.

Though Shigure surely knew it – I didn't sound very convincing – he said, "Oh, okay," and let it go.

"Hi, Souma-chan," Haninozuka said to me, as friendly and considerate as ever.

Morinozuka-san threw me another look, which had to be the fourth or something in total. As always when he looked at me, his expression seemed slightly changed but in an unexplainable way. Also, it was a bit different from how it was when he looked at me before, again.

The three others started talking again soon enough, and I even talked along a bit from time to time. Somehow, I felt more comfortable now and about a half hour later, I felt even content with the situation, though still a bit worried about Morinozuka-san's opinion about me. I was very glad to notice more and more that either Haninozuka didn't notice anything after all, or he just didn't care.

Not too long after that, Haninozuka said they had to leave again. "Aw, already?" Shigure said, voicing my thoughts. I felt so good talking to Haninozuka with my nephew and Tohru that I really didn't want it to end yet. In the end, this comfortable conversation was kind of driven by the presence of Haninozuka. I knew it would end as soon as he was gone.

"Yeah, we eat kind of early at home," he said. "Right Takashi?"

"Un," Morinozuka-san nodded.

"Well okay, I'll let you out then. It was very nice of you to drop by." Shigure got up and led the way to the door. It went pretty quickly suddenly. Tohru and I got up also and walked with them.

"Ah, Souma-chan," Haninozuka said when he and Morinozuka-san were standing in the open doorway. "Will you come over again tomorrow?"

Tomorrow was Friday. I usually had plenty of time on Fridays. "Sure… I guess…" I said.

He stepped forwards and hugged me, putting his arms around my neck, just like that. I felt my muscles tense up automatically, but told myself to stop doing that and just relaxed for a second, enjoying the feeling of his soft arms and shift around me. He could barely reach my neck and it wouldn't surprise me if he had been standing on his toes. "It was real nice to come over today," he said before letting go.

"I'll see you tomorrow then!"

"See you tomorrow," Morinozuka-san even said to me.

They walked off. Haninozuka waved over his shoulder, calling out to us, "Bye-byeeee!"

Shigure and Tohru kept standing in the doorway for a bit longer, waving. I sneaked out past them, mumbling something about going to the roof. I didn't want to be around as the house became so painfully unpleasant again, though with just Tohru and Shigure downstairs, it probably wouldn't be so bad.

Some time later, I sat up on the roof thinking about Haninozuka. He was so sweet, hugging me like that. Why was he the only person I would allow doing something like that to me? He was so thoughtful too, knowing exactly when I wanted to talk about something and when I didn't, and leading the conversation in that direction almost effortlessly, and still not obviously to the others.

Though it wasn't really late yet, I was very tired again, like I had been yesterday and probably still from the many activities yesterday, because I hadn't slept all that well last night. Because of that, and because I kept thinking the same things so much that it bored me, I fell asleep on the roof without even realizing it in time to do something about it.

"_Kyo-chan!" Haninozuka said to me, with a giant smile on his face. I looked around at him in surprise._

_I was at Ouran again, in the Third Music Room. In the far distance I could see Kyouya, Tamaki, the twins, the girlboy and Morinozuka-san, all of them looking at me. I wanted to make them stop looking, but they were too far away to tell them and Haninozuka was talking to me, so I couldn't just leave._

"_Hey Haninozuka," I said vaguely._

"_Please, call me Hunny, why don't you call me Hunny?" he said and I looked at him for real for the first time._

"_Hunny?" I thought about it. "Why do you want me to call you Hunny."_

"_I call you Kyo-chan too, don't I? It's only fair that you call me Hunny-chan, or at least Hunny."_

"_Oh…"_

_He changed the subject suddenly. "Kyo-chan, will you join the Host Club? I think it would be great if you could join!"_

_I looked up at the people in the distance again, and this time, they looked down as I caught their gaze, for just a second, but I knew that if I stopped looking they would just start staring at me again._

_Haninozuka pulled my sleeve to catch my attention and making me look at him again, instead. "So, will you?"_

_I thought about it, but I really didn't want to be around if Haninozuka started being all friendly with the girls of Ouran. "No, I'd rather not," I said._

"_Why not?"_

"_I just don't want to."_

_He looked straight at me with these huge eyes of his for the longest time. I stared right back into his, for the first time not intimidated by them. After a while, he walked forward and hugged me, just like he had earlier when he left from Shigure's house. He whispered in my ear, "Please? I really want you to."_

_I quivered slightly. He was so soft, so gentle and so sweet. I could hardly even think about saying no to him again, all I wanted was to give in to him at that moment. When he pulled back, he left his hands on my shoulders and looked at me. His eyes were really close, and so was his mouth. Slowly, he moved forward with his mouth towards mine, on his way to… kiss me. I was frozen, totally unable to move an inch or breathe a single breath._

_Then… just before our lips would touch…_

"Kyo-kun!"

I opened my eyes quickly, startled and was blinded by the light from the rising sun shining in it. Immediately, I felt a sensation of disappointment seep over me, knowing that this was my real life and not the one that I had dreamt of just now. Once again, tears started forming in my eyes spontaneously.

"Kyo-kun," I heard again. It was the voice of Shigure. I turned my head to face him.

"What?" I asked a bit rudely.

"You didn't show up for dinner… and you didn't come inside to sleep either. Tohru and I were worried. Yuki was, too."

Yeah, right. Like I was going to believe Yuki was actually worried about me. I gave him a look.

"Well, maybe not too much, but he was a little. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I said. "You can leave now." I was rude, I knew it, but I really needed some space at the moment.

Shigure nodded quietly and left, descending the stairs to go back inside.

I could still feel the tears welling up behind my eyes and soon, they would unstoppably be coming out. The despair I felt at that very moment was stronger than any despair a dream had ever caused me, and I knew that I wouldn't forget it anymore even as the day would progress. And that wasn't even beginning to think about what was probably even more important at that moment… whatever did that dream mean?


	3. Time alone with the Champion

A/N: I'm sorry about the long delay before this chapter this time... but I guess it's like I said in the A/N of chapter 1: I sometimes take long like that... hope you enjoy anyhow :P and please, let me know what you think, it helps me a lot! Thx in advance.

**3 - Time alone with the champion  
**

It was extremely cold out there, on the roof, but I couldn't go inside immediately. First, I had to quietly sit for a few minutes and make sure I wouldn't have to shed any more tears, because I didn't need to have Shigure or Tohru asking me any questions right then.

The house was already full of life when I went back inside, with all three of them hanging around having breakfast. Tohru looked at me worriedly as soon as I entered. "Kyo-kun, you slept outside all night? Daijoubu?"

"It's okay," I told her with a mental sigh. "Thanks though."

She was content with that, for the moment at least, though surely she was still worrying about me. She must have noticed my behavior being different from normal for the past few days. I kind of felt bad about how I acted, but it couldn't be helped, really. I think I kind of felt the way that I felt right before I met Tohru, before she changed me. It didn't feel too good.

Yuki seemed friendly that morning. He even greeted me with a kind 'Ohayo' and I repeated it. Sometimes, it was refreshing to not fight with him for a while.

"Kyo-kun, do you want to eat breakfast?" Tohru asked and handed me a bowl of miso soup.

"I do," I said and took the bowl from her. "Arigatou."

Drinking from the bowl of miso soup, I decided I wouldn't go to Haninozuka after school today.

_For the whole day_ at school, I was still wondering whether I should stick to my 'decision' or not, but in the end I knew that I probably would. And indeed, afterwards, my body went home on autopilot and I couldn't find the will power or even the conviction needed to stop it and still go to Haninozuka.

_The farther I was _from school, the more I became insecure again. Passing through the woods, I stopped dead in my tracks, halted by a particular thought that had crossed my mind. If I really believed it was the best decision to make, the one that I had made, then... why does it feel so bad? Why do I feel so bad about it? The sadness I had felt had only increased as the day passed.

Flashes from last night's dream came back to me and I saw Haninozuka's dark eyes directed at me again, wide open, questioning; his blonde hair gently flopping up and down as he looked up at me and his cute, hopeful smile as he asked me to join the host club. Frustrated, I leaned against the nearest tree with my left hand and hit it hard with my right.

Kuso... that really hurt. That made me even angrier, and I hit the same place again with my same fist, with a feeling like 'that'll show it!' Of course, the tree still stood and my hand only hurt more. I put it over my eyes for a second and took a deep sigh before continuing.

_At home, a new problem_ showed up in my mind. I figured not going to Haninozuka today was one thing, but doing so unannounced was quite another. Once again, I realized that I had forgotten to think about how Haninozuka was going to feel about my decision and I was reminded of how careless I could be.

I thought about it. I _wanted_ to tell him, but I was really worried that he would try to convince me to come over anyhow. What if he asked me why I didn't want to come over? I'd have to lie about it, for sure. Maybe I should just tell him that I wouldn't have any time the coming days, or weeks even. That couldn't lead to too many difficult questions, could it? Then why didn't I want to tell him that either?

"Kyonkyon!" Shigure cooed from next to me, all of a sudden.

"What!?" I snapped back at him.

"Hana-chan and Uo-chan are here for Tohru and they asked about you. I think they want to play Dai-hin-min with you again. Shall I tell them you're too busy?"

"No! If it's a challenge, I'll accept!"

Surely, it had been Uo that had asked for me specifically ("So where is carrothead? Cowering off somewhere again?") and Hana just going along with it, but Hana always did play along with the game (rather well, I might add), so it was a worthy challenge. Especially if it meant being able to show to that Uo just what I was worth.

Uo, Tohru, Shigure and I especially dramatically lost from Hana again, which was pretty annoying, but at least it was a good distraction from my other thoughts. When later that day, they left and Yuki and Tohru went to clean while Shigure wrote, I was once again alone with my thoughts.

Haninozuka had to be wondering why I didn't show up by now. Would he be angry, or even worse, disappointed, maybe? Or, worse still, did he just not care?

I was greatly tempted to just pick up the phone and call him up - if I even had his number? I wasn't even sure - to apologize to him and still come over. I would have invited him here if I could have been alone with him, without the disturbance of the other three inhabitants of this house.

The ambience of that evening inspired deep thoughts so much, that it reminded me of Christmas somehow. When I sat up on the roof, pretty soon a few cats joined me and I sighed as they rubbed themselves against me from all sides and planted themselves on the most impossible parts of my body so that I could hardly move for fear of making one fall off.

Looking at the largest one of them all, a fat white cat that had installed itself on my lap as I sat with my legs crossed underneath each other, my eyes unfocused. I guess I could admit at that point that I missed him. Quite a lot, actually. I felt awful about not going over to him that day and leaving him hanging like that, but I still thought it was the best thing for me to do. Even so, I kind of wished he would ignore my silent hint and come over to me right now, maybe come sit up on the roof with me like Tohru and even Yuki had done sometimes.

I fantasized about it a little. If he came over right then, what would we do? He probably wouldn't allow for a single uncomfortable silence to occur, and he'd keep the conversation going effortlessly. I'd soon find myself talking along with him like I didn't have a care in the world, smiling with him and looking at him. Maybe if I made it seem like it was nothing, I could touch him a little as well, maybe something simple, like a friendly pat on the shoulder. Or maybe something a bit more, like petting his velvety soft hair, or a hug perhaps. And then...

Suddenly, I felt very weird about my thoughts. What the hell was I thinking?? It made no sense at all to have these thoughts, or to feel these feelings, and it needed to stop, quickly. I had made my decision, the decision that I shouldn't see him again, at least not today, and thinking these thoughts wasn't something that fit with that choice.

"Kyo-kun!" Shigure called, leaning out of the door so that he was just in sight for me. "There's someone on the phone for you! It's Mori-san!"

'Oh my,' I thought with a sigh. "Okay," I said and put the cats that were on top of me next to me on the roof, standing up before they could climb back on me again. I jumped off the roof and went inside.

Morinozuka-san... what would he want from me? I was worried, since he was so close with Haninozuka and I hadn't shown up today without telling anyone anything. He would probably be angry with me, protective as he seemed to be of Haninozuka. I really didn't want to answer that phone call, but I didn't quite want to be so rude as to not answer it either.

"Moshimoshi," I said after picking up the phone.

"Hi." Morinozuka-san's deep voice had a dark undertone to it, or so it sounded. Immediately, he asked me straight out. "Why didn't you come to Ouran today?"

"Eh... ano..." I was lost for words. Someone asking me as directly as this really didn't help me in my ability to answer. Yet again, I felt terrible.

Luckily, Morinozuka-san continued, making it seem like his prior question was really more of a way to introduce the subject of the phone call than an actual question. "Could you go see Mitsukuni tomorrow at eleven AM in front of Ouran?" he asked.

Although tomorrow was Saturday, there was no school for Kaibara. Apparently, that was the same for Ouran.

I was aware that it was hardly possible for me to say 'no' to him at this point. It felt now like he had asked his first question to make me think twice about telling him I wouldn't be able to visit tomorrow. I didn't think about it much more and simply said, "Yes, that wouldn't be a problem, I guess."

Afterwards, I realized that Morinozuka-san's convincingness was a good excuse for me to be able to say 'yes', but in the end I wanted to say it anyway, because I was kind of glad to be able to see Haninozuka despite my earlier decision not to.

_That didn't make me_ any less nervous, I recognized the next day at ten AM, the time at which I got up. Only Shigure was around and he had already had breakfast and was busy with other things, so it was quiet around, always a good way to start a day for me. Luckily, since it was early and I was still just a bit sleepy, I didn't have too much trouble keeping my mind from driving me crazy with anxiousness.

The day was beautiful. The sun stood in a clear blue sky, with not too many clouds in it. The temperature was just not high enough to make the rays of the sun unpleasant and there was a very soft wind.

Shigure had asked where I was going, and I hadn't lied to him, saying simply that I was going to Ouran, at which he nodded and told me to have fun. Tohru and Yuki still weren't back by the time I left, so that was all the interaction I had that day before leaving.

I got to Ouran at exactly eleven o'clock with my heart beating in my throat. Haninozuka wasn't there yet and I wondered if maybe Morinozuka-san had meant 'in front of Ouran' as 'in front of the entrance directly' rather than near the street before that long walkway between the bushes, behind the big gate, in front of which I was waiting. However, just as I decided I should walk up there for a bit to see if he was there - I thought I didn't see anybody there but at this distance, I couldn't be sure - Haninozuka came running around the corner. It was only three past eleven and though I knew he was coming, he caught me unprepared. Unfortunately, he looked just as cute as I had remembered him to be. Seeing him for the first time again after that dream was a tad unnerving. Fortunately, he was alone and Morinozuka-san wasn't with him today.

He was panting, trying to catch his breath after having run really fast. I briefly wondered why such a rich boy couldn't have been brought by car by one of his family's drivers or something - the people at Ouran struck me as being that rich and so did the interior of that place - but didn't let my mind rest on it for very long.

When he had caught his breath only for a little bit, he looked up at me, still breathing deeply, irregularly, and told me, "Souma-chan, I'm sorry I'm late - I overslept..."

Somehow the concept of that boy oversleeping made him seem even cuter and more innocent in my eyes. "I was here for only a few minutes yet anyway."

I'm glad it was true, because usually I tell people straight away if I've been waiting for a long time for them, and though I wouldn't have wanted to do that with him, it might still happen by mistake if I wasn't careful. I realized it after I said it because I'd been truthful without thinking.

He smiled broadly. "Ah, yokatta!" He was silent for a while and looked down. I was quiet too, looking at him, waiting for him to say something else. Wondering what he wanted to talk to me about. At least he didn't seem to be angry, so I was already feeling a bit better. Then, he looked at me again, not quite smiling but definitely happy. "I'm glad you came over today too," he told me.

"Sure," I said. 'Sure' didn't sound exactly right since I hadn't come the day before, even while I had said I would, but it seemed okay with Haninozuka.

"Souma-chan?" he asked and walked a little closer. Only then did I perceive how far away we had stood from each other. He stopped at four feet away from me or so.

"Yes..?"

"You still want me to train you... right?"

I had to hold my breath for a little while before I could carefully, consciously, let it go again. The look he gave me was just like the look he had given me in my dream, and it was like I was living it all over again. I just couldn't remember if in my dream, his eyes had also sparkled this beautifully, and if his cheeks had also been such a lively color of reddish pink.

"Y-yeah, sure," I said and looked away, already giving up on my earlier decision not to see him anymore. If I was truly honest, it wasn't what I had wanted anyway, sad as I had been for that one day that I had lived with the idea. Remembering how glad I was when I realized yesterday, after Morinozuka-san had called me, that I could go see him again, I knew it was kind of the only thing I could do. I guess I couldn't have said 'no' to these eyes anyhow.

"Really?" he insisted.

I looked right at him and said, this time with much more convincingness, "Yeah. Really." I was actually looking forward to his training already, so that we could finally actually get to the point. I wonder if I still would've so easily told him it was okay if I hadn't believed I wouldn't again change into a cat when he was there, but to be honest... I think I would have.

"Great! Because I really like you!" He said, smiling happily. He 'really liked' me? I blushed slightly, averting my eyes. But although worried, I was happy too.

There was another short silence. Just before it got uncomfortable, I told him I should probably go, and he said something like, "Oh... okay..." He sounded like he had wanted me to stay a little longer. I also wanted that, but I was too nervous and had no idea how to compose myself. Surely, I felt a bit weird that I had just been so happy to realize I could see him again, and only seconds later I decided to leave, knowing that I'd feel bad about it for the rest of the day. It still felt natural to me, though.

However, when I was just walking away, he stopped me by calling out my name. "Souma-chan!"

I turned back around and looked at him inquiringly, silently urging him to continue.

"I... I know you were a cat on Wednesday," he said.

I froze, and I knew there was a petrified shock in my expression. He did know? "I..." I said, but I really didn't know what to tell him. That he knew I turned into a cat was really bad, but all I could think of was how happy I was that apparently he hadn't cared enough, before, to stop wanting to see me.

He continued. "Remember? I threw you over my shoulder and when I turned around, I didn't see you anymore. I thought you had disappeared at first, but then I saw a cat, buried in your clothes. Afterwards, I guess it was kind of obvious."

I remained silent still. I suppose it should've been obvious to me that it was obvious to him. He wasn't stupid, after all.

"Is it okay? I wasn't supposed to know, right?"

I ignored his question. "Who else did you tell?"

"Just Takashi, when he told me that he had seen an orange cat with your clothes, too."

I had already sort of guessed Morinozuka-san knew, so I wasn't too surprised about that. "And you're sure he didn't tell anyone else either?"

"Yes," he nodded. "I made sure of that." I wondered what I was supposed to think of that.

"Well," I said, but I didn't know what else to say so I paused, thoughtfully looking in the distance. It was the old question of whether or not this posed a threat to the wellbeing of the family. I, for one, trusted Haninozuka to not tell anyone and I thought Morinozuka-san could be trusted too, but if Shigure or Yuki found out, they'd definitely want to tell Akito - well, at least Shigure would. But now, I couldn't hide anymore behind the excuse that I hadn't really thought they'd noticed, so Akito would definitely be upset with me if he were to somehow find out about it and discover that I hadn't told him while I knew. I sighed.

"Is it bad that I know?" Haninozuka asked.

"I don't know," I told him. "Others will think so. It will be a problem if they find out."

"So... do you need to tell them?"

"Not really," I said, not being entirely truthful. "Actually, I think it'll be okay if I don't tell them at all. It won't be that much of a problem if the two of you never tell anyone else."

"Oh..." he said softly and thought for a second. Then, he looked up at me happily. "But I don't see why it's a problem at all! I mean if it's just that you change into a cute cat sometimes, I don't think that it's so bad at all!"

I smiled weakly at him, wishing everyone would think about it that way and also wondering if he would still feel that way if he knew what other form I could take.

"Ano ne! How does it work?" he asked.

"How does what work?"

"You know, 'it', you changing into a cat... when do you change?"

"In general..." I said with a slight pinch of doubt, "I change whenever I get nervous or when I get hugged by a girl. With girls, it's if they get hugged by a boy." By saying that, I kind of hoped he wouldn't ask about whether I had gotten nervous, but he'd rather continue about...

"Eh? There are others that change into cats also?"

"Iie," I said, "But some other members of the Souma family change into other Jyuunishi animals."

"Ah, really? So there are others too! Do they know about you?"

"Yes, the thirteen of us all know about each other."

"Thirteen? Would that be... one for each Jyuunishi animal?"

I nodded. "That's right. Although the cat isn't really a Jyuunishi animal at all."

He kept asking more questions. "And if you're changed, how do you turn back human?"

"Just by waiting a while. It varies how long it takes."

He thought a little longer. "Is Tohru also one of the people who change into Jyuunishi animals?" He finally asked.

"No," I said, "But she does know about it." I figured I might as well be completely honest, now that I had started it.

"That's why she took you and your clothes out of the room back then," he said.

"That's right," I said, smiling vaguely at the weirdness of the situation.

He stared into the distance, thinking about it all, with a dreamlike smile. It seemed he took it all extremely well.

"You know," I told him, "Shigure and Yuki are also Jyuunishi animals."

"Ah, that's right," he said, "Is Yuki the person you wanted to defeat?"

I looked at him in surprise, wondering how he could tell. "Yes, he is." He was quite perceptive if he could see that from the way we acted while he was there, because I think we barely interacted at all and even when we did, we didn't fight or anything like that.

A little later, at twenty past eleven, after having answered a few more of his questions, I made to leave again. However, he stopped me again. "Souma-chan..."

"Yes?"

"Don't leave yet? I didn't just want you to come here to tell you that I knew... isn't it okay if you stayed a bit longer?"

He gave me the cutest, inviting smile and once again, I couldn't really say 'no' and mean it, so I decided not to try in the first place. I smiled back at him, a little nervously. "Okay then..."

He looked really happy with my positive reply and appeared to be attempting to contain his smile for a while before he asked me another question. "Wanna come over to where I used to train a lot? We can watch tv there, too?" he asked.

_It was one of the _best places for training I had ever seen. The main building was a huge, rectangular shaped building. It was white outside and white, green and beige inside and there were decorations of trees on the lower part of the walls inside. It was huge from the outside, but seemed even bigger when we got in. Haninozuka kindly asked me to take off my shoes and took them off himself as well. He picked up both pairs of shoes, put them on a mat near the entrance and shut the room with a sliding door.

It felt extremely luxurious, being in this huge area with just him. I looked around enthusiastically, thinking with a grin that this was a kind of place I could be comfortable in.

Haninozuka had barely shut the room when the loud sound of thunder rushed through the room, a sound that was immediately followed by the gentler, more consistent sound of rain falling on the roof. The cold shudder that seemed to be the automatic bodily response to that noise ran up my spine through my body. I licked my lips. I seriously hated the rain, but the sound of the rain falling on the building like that, out of my reach, I didn't quite hate. It was actually comforting for me to realize that the rain couldn't directly harm me, even though it still pretty much got to me always. It was the association with the rain in principle that made me dislike the sound even though I also liked it. It was a very double feeling that always made my mind tired somehow.

I was also surprised that it would rain on a day like this; it had seemed to be such nice weather just minutes before, when we were outside.

"Ah, we're in just in time!" Haninozuka cheered and he walked over to a wall, near which several white karategi were attached on a standing clothes rack. "We should wear these in here," he said. "I always wear them even if I'm not training, though when I'm here I'm actually always training..."

He looked back at me. I was still standing near the entrance of the room, indecisive of what to do. "Souma-chan, ano ne! Do you want to wear one?" He held up the karategi and moved it a few inch through the air in my direction to emphasize his words. "If you want, you could change in there." He gestured the uniform at the door next to the clothes rack. "Then I can change in here!"

"Okay," I agreed. I walked over, took the karategi from him and passed through the door. I stumbled upon a much smaller room that was square shaped. There were more clothes racks in there, a rack with different kinds of food, and there was a couch and a luxurious television. The walls were decorated with simple drawings of bunnies and sweets, mostly cakes, and they were filled up with other decorative figures, consisting of curly lines and extensive color usage. It was definitely Haninozuka's own corner of the building.

The soft but violent clattering of the raindrops falling on the building from the outside was beginning to give me a headache and the hunger I felt also seemed to be a direct result of the wetness outside. I briefly shook my head to get rid of certain feelings and hoped to be able to keep just the sensation of excitement in my stomach and the happiness that I felt. It was hard to seperate the feelings like that and I didn't quite succeed. I ended up still feeling tired, hungry and a bit sore in the head.

I took off my shirt, socks and pants and slipped on the white robe-like piece of clothing. It felt soft and smooth against my skin, but wasn't warm enough to prevent me from getting goose bumps at first. I kicked my clothes away a bit more so they lay in a corner and looked around to take a last look at the room with all the white, pink, red and yellow colors. Then, I went back out to the larger room.

Haninozuka just pulled the robe around him and tied it up quickly. I was startled by the sight of his nude skin, only covered by his underwear, for the half second or so that I saw it before the white of the karategi covered it. I couldn't be entirely sure, but I think his underwear was blue. His chest looked kind of... touchable.

He looked up at me and his eyes widened up and sparkled as he saw me. "Ah, Souma-chan, you look good in that!"

"I don't think so," I disagreed quickly, remembering the few times I had previously worn one of these things and seen myself. White wasn't my color at all, if you asked me, it just didn't fit. I did own some white shirts, but these were mainly for training purposes. I don't know why I liked to train in white, but I had always felt I did.

The rain intensified a bit in strength and as it did, the sound increased in volume. It started to seriously work on my nerves and I restlessly looked around the room.

"Cold, isn't it?" Haninozuka asked and looked around the room as well. He moved over to the other side of the clothes rack and pressed a few buttons on a small device on the wall that he said controlled the room's temperature.

He turned to look at me. "You want a coke?" He walked over to the door to lean through it, grabbed something and got back out. In his hand, he was holding two coke cans. They barely fit into his hands and he had to stretch his fingers to hold them both until he took one of them into his other hand.

"Sure," I said.

He walked over to me and handed me one of the cans. It made me notice he was almost a foot smaller than I was as he held his hand up at me. He then opened his own and drank a bit from it. He asked me something, but through the rain, I couldn't understand.

"What did you say?"

"What do you want to do," he asked again.

I shrugged. "Nothing, really." It was true enough; when it was raining like this, I never really felt like doing anything.

Haninozuka took another sip from the soda can. "Well," he said, "There's really not too much to do here at all... there's only a television around here and a few movies... and a phone."

When I looked at him, he pointed at the far side of the wall, where if you looked well, a phone could be seen hanging on the wall.

"Let's watch a movie then," I suggested.

Haninozuka nodded affirmatively and told me it was in the room I had been dressing in. "Did you see the television yet?"

"Yeah," I said.

We went in there and he immediately plopped himself down on the sofa. Then, as if he had forgotten, he turned around and leant over the back support to open a small closet that I hadn't seen before and that was only just in his reach. Tens if not hundreds of films could be seen in it, neatly piled and sorted. "You can pick one, Souma-chan!"

"You call this 'a few movies'?" I asked him sarcastically and positioned myself in front of it to choose one. There were a lot of famous titles, but also a few movies I hadn't ever heard of before. The sound of the rain suddenly sounded a bit better to me, and I slowly felt a bit more comfortable again.

"Ah, Souma-chan - I'm gonna throw away this coke can, ne?" He got up and walked out of the room, leaving me alone with all these DVDs to pick from. In the end, I picked a movie named 'Ginger Snaps' about werewolves.

A second or two later, Haninozuka came back and beatifically spoke to me, saying, "Ooh, it smells just like Christmas outside! Come too!" and pulling me by the white sleeve to persuade me into coming out with him.

"I don't like rain," I stated, but he insisted.

"You don't have to come outside, just stand in the door entrance! It's really nice!"

I sighed and allowed myself to be led by the hand to the sliding door that he slid open. I stood near the entrance and looked at him a bit strangely. "What are we looking for?"

"Just smell! Don't you smell Christmas too?"

"I'm not sure what Christmas smells like," I told him doubtfully.

"Just smell!" he said again.

I did as he asked and tried to detect any kind of scent in the air that resembled Christmas in any way, staying at a considerate distance inside so as not to get wet as the raindrops hit the floor and splattered in all directions. If it would never rain again, I would gladly go to Yuki's little garden daily and water his plants myself, I thought.

Although I noticed nothing at first, after a while I started to think I did smell something a bit like the scent of Christmas, whatever that may be. It could've been just my imagination, but even if it was, it was kind of cool.

"Yeah..." I finally said, "I think I do smell it. A ltitle bit."

He smiled magnificently at me again and I felt my throat dry out from the inside, swallowing in an attempt to get rid of the sensation.

"Let's go inside and watch the movie," I said.

"Ah, yes - which movie did you pick?"

_In a trice_, we were sitting on the couch in the small room with the television. I was waiting as Haninozuka was setting the language to English and the subtitles to Japanese so we could follow, though I think we could both comprehend it in English as well - and I noticed that the couch really was kind of small for the two of us. I don't think it was used by two people simultaneously a lot.

Thinking of something, I asked him, "Hey, why didn't you just take me to your home?"

He sat back with the remote control in his hand and looked up at me to answer. "I just thought it would be quieter in here," he said. "People don't get here often on Saturdays."

"'People'?" I repeated.

"Well, mainly just my family. But when I'm in here, nobody comes in anyway. It's my own little room, you know?"

"I thought so," I mumbled, thinking I wouldn't have believed it if he had told me otherwise.

"Are you ready for the movie?" he asked. When I nodded, he put it on and soon, we were both leaning back, watching it. I lay against the comfortable support, away from Haninozuka but not blatantly so.

As the movie, which was quite fun in itself and contained some very humorous jokes, progressed, I saw Haninozuka sit more and more defensively, with his knees up against his chest and his arms wrapped around it. He seemed to be really living the movie and getting kind of scared. It was awkward to me, because I somehow felt like I wanted to comfort him a little, but couldn't think of a decent way to do so. He seemed to be alright though, so I didn't worry about it too much. Even so, it was hard for me to focus on the movie, because his leg kept brushing up against mine and he'd keep making these striking, soft little noises when he was startled about something, along with a few other things that drew my attention to him all the time.

When the movie was over, he actually crawled over to lean against my right side. His hair slightly tickled in my neck, but it wasn't uncomfortable. He lay like that for a bit, relaxing to get the stress he seemed to get from watching the movie out of his head. He sat back up straight and we talked a bit about the movie, and what we thought of it.

Then, he jumped up suddenly and looked at me enthusiastically. "Ne, ne, Souma-chan! You think we could train a bit more now? I still want to practice karate with you!"

"Karate?" I asked.

"Un, un! We did judo last time, remember? We're in this dojo now anyway, so it's okay right?"

"Well... yeah, sure, why not? That'd be fun."

_Not too long after that_, we found ourselves once again on opposite sides of a mat. "I don't know if you noticed," Haninozuka said, "But you're wearing a white belt now. I gave you that not because I think you're a beginner, but because you're probably still unranked, which also means you get a white belt at first."

I nodded, eyeing the black belt that he was wearing. I didn't care all too much about the belt color system; as long as I was trained well, it was fine with me.

"How much do you know about karate?"

"Not too much, but I think what I was trained in before was mostly karate..." The way Yuki and I fought and the way shishou and I trained, it was always with a lot of punches and kicks, dodging and blocking. I thought that was what karate was mostly about.

"So, do you know what the basis for improving in rank usually is?"

"No," I told him.

"First is the stance, then comes the balance. Speed and power are a bit less important." He put his feet directly next to each other and stood straight up, arms lined up with his body. It was cool to see how it seemed so natural to him, to stand that way, and he still appeared so firm and controlled. "This is the simplest stance in karate, called Heisoku-dachi." He moved his feet a bit away from each other and took a stance that seemed a bit more comfortable, though still an obviously thought out stance. "Ah, I know! A good stance for you!" He exclaimed. "Try this..."

He stood besides me and led me onto the mat. "You're right-handed, right?"

I nodded.

"Put your right foot in front of your left." I put it directly in front of it. "A bit more to the right," he said, "And turn your left foot leftwards so that it is at a ninety degree angle with your right. Then stand on your toes."

I did as he said, and he made a few more adjustments by saying, "Place your right foot a bit more to your left... that's right, and bend through your knees a bit." He was holding me by the waist now to keep me balanced and I enjoyed the feel of his touch. "Now, move your hips as if you're facing the direction your left foot is facing, but keep your head directed at me." Since he was standing in front of me, that meant I would still be looking where my right foot was directed at. I tried to keep up with him, but it was hard to keep my balance when tip-toed like I was.

I finally got it right, although apparently I kept moving my right foot too far to the right, and he assured me the heel of it should point at the heel or middle of my left foot. Still a bit unable to keep my balance perfectly, I looked at him inquiringly. "Why is this a good stance for me? It doesn't feel good at all!"

"They call this nekoashi-dachi," he giggled. "The cat stance."

I immediately stood up straight again, comfortably, frowning at him, though I couldn't help but smile a bit too. "You're weird," I told him. "You stand in that stance."

He nodded and took the stance in less than a second. He was still at least six inches shorter than I was even when standing on his toes. He stood perfectly still, his hands fisted in front of him. It looked really easy, the way he did it, and I found myself wishing I could do it like that too.

"Anyway," I said, "Teach me something for real, now."

"Okay," he said happily, also standing more comfortably again. "Usually, I'd start by teaching students kata, which are patterns of moves that are performed in the air for practice, you know? But I think you'd rather start with something more exciting, ne? Sparring or something?"

"Sparring would be cool," I said.

He told me a little bit about what I needed to know to spar, but pretty soon we moved on to the practical side of it: the actual sparring. I was extremely nervous to be fighting the national champion, worried that I would make a fool of myself by not being anywhere near his league. It was true that I wasn't, but in the end, it didn't turn out as badly as I had feared. Whenever Haninozuka was able to land a blow on me, he held back just a little, so that I was hit, but not badly. I don't think he wanted me to notice, but it was pretty clear, especially considering his talent. That's not to say he didn't make it look natural, cause he did, very well. I didn't mind much, it was actually rather sweet.

After a while, the raining outside clearly became less, gradually, until it finally died down completely and didn't come back again even after we stopped our little 'match'.

We had started sparring at a few minutes past half past two and went on until four PM, at which point we decided to stop for now and rest a bit. At least, that's what we said, but the training for almost ninety minutes seemed to have energized Haninozuka greatly and he could barely sit still next to me on the couch in front of the television, that was now turned off.

"Why are you so energetic?" I asked him.

He laughed cheerfully. "Karate and judo always make me energetic like that. That's why I never do it right before I... go to sleep."

To me, the next few minutes felt a little weird. Though we were talking and everything, it felt like some small talk, a movie and martial arts were all we could do for now. It didn't really get uncomfortable to the point where we had nothing to say to each other and silences would creep in, but it was definitely 'less' somehow from the rest of the day. After a few minutes, I decided that this probably meant that it had been enough for one day. I was enjoying myself, and I kind of felt like I wanted to stay with Haninozuka for a bit longer still, but even so I told myself and him that I should be going. He was disappointed, but not too badly.

"Okay," he said and told me he was happy I came along in the first place.

Soon after that, we were both standing outside, each with out regular clothes on again. Though it wasn't raining anymore, the wetness of the floor under me and the dripping of the plants' leaves were still present and they aggravated me a bit. Thankfully, it wasn't cold at all and the sun was breaking through again, the sky already blueing.

He showed me off the terrain and on to the road. "You know the way from here, right?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Souma-chan?" He asked for my attention. When he saw he got it, he said, "Thanks for coming today. I had fun."

"You're welcome," I said. "I had fun too." I swallowed, suddenly feeling a bit guilty. I decided to just come right out and say it. "And... I'm sorry I didn't come over yesterday." A made-up excuse almost automatically followed, but I gulped it down, not wanting to lie to him about something like that. Instead, I just left out the explanation.

"Aww, it's okay," he said, seemingly honestly. "We'd seen each other every day since we met until then, so it's okay to have one day as a break, right? I wouldn't want you to grow tired of me already."

He smiled cutely at me and I managed a smile back. "I... don't think that'll happen very soon," I said.

He was silent for a second. I had just wanted to say something nice, but it came out so stupidly that I had to blush a little. All I could do was silently curse my nervousness and hope he'd say something soon.

Instead of saying anything he just kind of started moving, jumping into my arms without warning. In a reflex, I closed my arms around his back and pulled him against me to prevent him from falling back down. Startled, I could do little but stand there as he lay his head on my shoulder and affectionately hugged me against him.

Without listening to what my mind said about it all, my eyes closed at the feel of his sandy hair brushing against my cheek, and I sighed a deep sigh that made me realize I was loving the feeling way more than I was supposed to. I didn't fight it, though, and simply pressed him even a little tighter against me, drowning myself in the softness of his clothes and arms. The hug must have lasted for all of thirty seconds, before he unwrapped his arms from my neck again and stood back on the ground after I removed my arms as well. He looked up at me.

"Next time, we'll continue where we left off with avoiding damage, okay? Remember?"

I was hoping the serious redness on my cheeks wouldn't show. I nodded quickly. "Yeah, that'd be cool. Erhm... when?"

"Uhh, well, whenever you want. You can call me to ask if it's okay, okay?" I wanted to reply, but he continued, speaking a bit louder as he thought of something. "Ah, you do have my phone number don't you?"

I had still been wondering about it, but I finally decided that I didn't have it. If he had given it to me before, I'd remember. "Well, no, I guess not. That makes me think of it, why did you, or well, Morinozuka-san, have mine?" I had wondered earlier, but I hadn't wanted to ask Morinozuka-san. Actually, I had wondered about them knowing my address as well, but I had been too distracted to ask them about it then.

"Ah..." He suddenly grew a bit quieter. "Well, Takashi asked Kyou-chan. Kyou-chan always knows everything about everyone. I told him it was okay to call you... I'm sorry..."

When someone told me they were sorry, my first response wasn't to tell them it was okay, but with him I did tend to do so. When I realized I really didn't mind, I did tell him. "Oh, that's okay, no problem... hm, is that how you got my address too?"

Haninozuka nodded. "Ne, you want my number?"

I nodded as well. He took a pen and note bloc (one that was considerably smaller than Kyouya's) from his pocket and penned something down on it. He gave it to me. On it was his number, with underneath that, 'Hani-chan'. It made me smile - as if I'd forget it was _his_ number. His handwriting was neat, readable at first glance.

"Call me when you want to continue our training, or just do something else with me," he told me again, friendly.

"I might call you tomorrow." For some reason, I couldn't stop smiling at him stupidly. My stomach was making a fuss again and wouldn't listen to my mental commands to quiet down.

"Cool!" he said and I turned to walk away, looking around a few steps later while still walking on to wave at him. He waved back.

Tomorrow I was gonna call him for sure, and maybe invite him over or something, or maybe go again to where we were today, or to his actual home. If he had so many movies in that small room and called that "a few movies", I couldn't imagine what his place would look like. Ouran would have been cool too if it wouldn't have been Sunday. Maybe we could also watch Ginger Snaps 2, a movie I had noticed in his collection too, and this time maybe I wouldn't lean away from him when we were sitting on the couch, but possibly even towards him a little bit. Would he hug me again when he saw me? Or just when I left? Then when we were done watching the movie, or maybe before that, he could teach me how to fall without taking damage. Before the movie would be nicer, so we could use the movie to rest and relax afterwards.

My mind continued to go in all directions randomly like that for a while. When I was about to turn a corner, I looked around once more to see him still standing there in the distance. He waved again as he saw I looked at him, and I actually thought about running back there to spend some more time with him still.

I sighed as I looked back in front of me and kept walking. Geez... okay, denying it any longer now would just be ridiculous. I admitted it to myself... I was definitely in love with that boy.

A/N: That's it for now... hope you all liked it... if you read all this, or even part of it, it would be nice if you could review ) I really appreciate it and it helps me to keep writing.


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